Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, that converted timber into planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial and cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed the rotary motion to vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.