Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that turned timber into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending motion and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
