Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World
There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted timber into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular movement to vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion while moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
