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Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its circular motion to vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke while advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
Joyce Smith
Lena is an environmental scientist and writer passionate about promoting sustainable practices through accessible, evidence-based content.
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