Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion while advancing on every return stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to vertical action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.