Can You Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted timber to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement to vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
