Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped the Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, which converted logs into planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke while moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary movement into up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.