Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending stroke while moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
