Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Modern World
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted logs to planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed its circular motion to up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward motion and advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
