Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their speedy automated cutter, that converted logs to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them so they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending motion while moving on every upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion to vertical action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
