Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that converted timber to planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the circular movement into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending motion and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular motion into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
