Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that converted logs into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed the rotary motion to vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke while moving on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
