Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which converted logs into planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion while advancing with each return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
