Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title should go to the automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted logs into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion and advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.
