Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped the Contemporary Globe

One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”

Owing to their rapid automated saw, that converted timber into planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed its circular movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.

“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.