Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which converted logs to planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its circular movement to vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke and moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
