Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern World
There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted logs to boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement to up-and-down action for the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward motion and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
