Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped our Modern World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which converted logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward motion while moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
