Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged the Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that converted logs to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted the circular movement to vertical action to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
