Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged the Contemporary World
There are many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted timber to boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the circular motion to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending motion while advancing on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.