Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped our Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted logs into boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
