Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted timber to planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement to vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion while moving on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
