Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary World
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs into boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion while moving with each return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular movement into vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
