Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Contemporary World
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which turned logs to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion while moving with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary motion to vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.