Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical action to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so they acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.
