Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing with each return stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.
