🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World There are numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine. According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Before mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced within seven days.” Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted logs to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world. The Original Genuine Industrial Machine The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle. “Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion and advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.” A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention. Round and Up Design a machine that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.) The solution returns later today UK time with the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.