Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted logs to boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke and moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
