Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which turned timber to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted the circular movement into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
