Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, which turned logs to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular movement into vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward stroke and moving on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
