Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, that turned logs to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement into up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.
