🔗 Share this article Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a new book, however, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, building a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.” Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, that converted timber to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the world. The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its circular movement to vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke. “Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.” A fact that brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention. Round and Up Design a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.