Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
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 recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber into boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the circular motion to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion and moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.
