🔗 Share this article Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Contemporary Globe One can find numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Before automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.” Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber to planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural dominance across Europe and the globe. The First True Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular motion to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke. “Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.” A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Design a machine that turns rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.