🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary World There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.” Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted logs to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe. The First True Industrial Machine The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted its circular movement into vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment per stroke. “Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.” Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to vertical action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not fall down.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.