🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.” Owing to their speedy automated cutter, that turned timber into boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world. The First Genuine Industrial Device The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per cycle. “Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending motion while advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.” Which brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine. Round and Up Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not fall down.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.