Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the circular movement into vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
