Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which turned logs to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted its rotary motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.
