Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned logs to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed its circular movement to up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion and moving with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
