Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the circular movement into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward motion while moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
