Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, which turned timber to planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural dominance across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke while advancing on every return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
