🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern World There are numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.” Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, that converted timber to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the world. The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke. “Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.” Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind this historic machine. Round and Up Design a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the components do not collapse.) The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.