Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber to boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them so they operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular movement into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
