Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which converted timber to planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion to vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.
