🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Modern World There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine. According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.” Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which converted logs to boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world. The First True Industrial Machine Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion to vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle. “Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward motion and advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.” A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Design a machine which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.