Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical cutter, which turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward stroke and moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.
