Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, that converted logs into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward motion and moving with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
