Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, that converted logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build ships faster compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed the rotary movement to vertical action to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke while moving on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
