🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern Globe One can find numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine. As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.” Owing to their rapid automated saw, that converted timber into planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the globe. The Original True Industrial Device The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed its rotary movement into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step per cycle. “Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.” A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Design a machine that turns rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.