Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward motion while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.