Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged the Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
