Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern World
There are many candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that converted timber to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across the continent and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the circular movement into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while moving with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
