Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, that turned logs to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular motion into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
