Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped the Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, which converted logs into boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward stroke and moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.