Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this rapid automated saw, that turned logs into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the circular motion to vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke while moving on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.
