Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged our Modern World
There are many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber to boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component converted its rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward motion while moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion into vertical action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
