Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged the Modern Globe
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, which turned logs to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted its rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward motion and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
