Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs into planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted the rotary movement to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step per cycle.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
