🔗 Share this article Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary World One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.” Thanks to this rapid automated saw, that converted logs into boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world. The First Genuine Manufacturing Device The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular movement into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each stroke. “Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.” A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine. Round and Up Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.