Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped the Modern World
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, which turned logs into boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed its rotary movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while moving with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.
