Can You Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy automated cutter, that turned logs into planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular movement into vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending motion while advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.