Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World
There are many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, which converted timber into planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending motion and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
