Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, which turned timber into boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted the rotary movement into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.
