Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its rotary movement into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke and moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
