Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the circular movement to vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward stroke while moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
