Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, which converted logs into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to vertical action. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.
