Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, that converted timber to planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion and advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular motion to vertical motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
