Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped the Modern World
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward motion and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
