Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that converted logs into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke while moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
