One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, that turned timber into planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement to vertical motion for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke while advancing with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
