Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward stroke while moving on every upward motion. It was a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular motion to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.
