Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, which converted timber into planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion to vertical motion for the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion while moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
