Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern World
There are numerous contenders for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that converted timber into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary motion to vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending motion and moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
