Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary World
There are many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, which converted timber to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
