Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped our Contemporary World
There are numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers working over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted logs into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the circular movement into vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular motion to vertical action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.
