Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Modern World
There are many candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, which turned timber to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement into vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns circular movement to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
