Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged our Modern World
One can find many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned timber into planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward motion while moving on every return stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.
