Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, which converted timber into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular motion into vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.