Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component converted its circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion while advancing with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
