Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which turned logs to boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted the rotary movement to vertical motion for the saw. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending stroke and moving on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement to vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
