Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary movement to up-and-down motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion while advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement into vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.
