Can You Crack It? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, that turned logs into planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion to up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion while moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to vertical action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.
