Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion and advancing on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
