Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that converted timber into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted its rotary movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion while moving with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.
