Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are many contenders for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, which turned timber into boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the circular motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
