Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, that converted logs to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest invention.
