🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern World One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.” Owing to their speedy automated cutter, which turned timber into boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural dominance across the continent and the globe. The First Genuine Industrial Machine The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment per stroke. “Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.” Which leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine. Round and Up Construct a machine that turns rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.) The solution returns later today UK with the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.