Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which turned timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its circular movement into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
