Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten sawyers working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, which converted logs to boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while moving on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.
