Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, that turned logs into planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while advancing on every return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
