Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern World
There are numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
