Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical cutter, which converted timber into planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed the circular motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke and moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.