Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged the Modern World
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber into planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary movement to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
