Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated cutter, that turned logs to boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical motion for the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward motion while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.