Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which turned logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted the circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary movement into up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
