Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World

One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”

Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the circular motion to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each stroke.

“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke while moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”

A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)

The solution returns later today UK with the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.