Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, that turned logs to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke while moving with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular motion to vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.