Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Contemporary World
One can find many contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, which turned timber into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke while moving with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
Which brings us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.