Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber to boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement to vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward stroke while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
