Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World
There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that converted logs into boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns circular motion into vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.
