Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs into boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion while moving on every return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.
