Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted its rotary motion into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them so they acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward motion while advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
