Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its circular motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
