Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber into boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial and cultural dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted its rotary movement to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so they acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward stroke while moving on every upward motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
