🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. As per a new book, though, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.” Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe. The First Genuine Industrial Device Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed the rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step per cycle. “Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and moving on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.” Which brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine. Round and Up Design a mechanism which converts rotary motion into vertical action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components don’t fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.