Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, which turned logs into boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted its rotary movement to up-and-down action for the saw. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward motion while moving on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
