Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which converted logs into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.
