🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary World There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. As per a new book, though, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than seven days.” Owing to their speedy automated saw, which converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the globe. The First True Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed its circular motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle. “Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke while advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic parts.” A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Circular to Vertical Design a machine that turns rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.