Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion to vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine them so they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and moving with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.
