Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, which turned timber into boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the saw. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending motion and advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
