Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid automated saw, which turned logs into planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while moving with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
