Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, which converted timber to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed the circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
