🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.” Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, which converted timber to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world. The First True Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke. “Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke while moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.” A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention. Round and Up Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into vertical motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.