Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular movement into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so they acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
