Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World

There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

As per a new book, however, that title should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”

Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which converted logs into planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step per stroke.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”

Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)

The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.