Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Modern World
One can find many contenders for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward motion while advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
