Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward motion while advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.
