Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged the Modern World
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which converted timber to boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward motion while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
