Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped our Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned logs to boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so they operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
