Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
