Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted timber into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular movement to up-and-down action for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending motion and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
