Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that converted timber to boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion while advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns circular motion to vertical action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.
