Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped the Modern World
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, that converted timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.
