Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged the Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which converted timber into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
