Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Modern Globe
There are many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber into planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed its rotary movement to vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.
