Earlier today I asked you to reinvent a component of a sixteenth century Dutch sawmill which, according to one new book – was the world's first industrial machine. You can read this post here. as well as an excellent BTL discussion about the world's greatest inventions. (Spoon or spear? Plow or glasses? Transistor or trousers?)
Round and up
Design a machine that converts rotary motion into up and down motion. You only have these items: Spinning Disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand to prevent components from falling.)
Solution
There are many ways to convert rotational motion to linear motion, but the example given here is perhaps the simplest. Attach one end of the rod to the disk. anywhere from the center of the disk and attach the other end of the rod to the second rod in a guide pointing in any direction. (UPDATE: The direction should be away from the disk.)
The picture shows how the wheel rotates counterclockwise. As it moves, it pulls the rod down and then pushes it up.
In a Dutch sawmill, inventor Cornelis Cornelissohn converted the rotary motion of a windmill into linear motion in two ways: by pushing the log horizontally along the carriage and by pushing the blade vertically down onto the log. As a result, the Dutch built many boats, became a great trading nation, and founded a settlement that eventually became New York.
I hope you enjoyed the puzzle. I'll be back in two weeks.
Forgotten: how one man discovered the modern world Jaime Davila published December 18th.
I've been doing puzzles here on Mondays since 2015. I'm always on the lookout for great puzzles. If you would like to offer one, write to me.
