Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down motion for the saw. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary movement to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
