Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Shaped the Modern World
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, that converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed the rotary movement to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke and advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
