🔗 Share this article Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe There are numerous contenders for the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine. According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Prior to automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.” Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world. The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed the circular movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke. “Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke while moving on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.” Which leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Circular to Vertical Construct a machine which converts circular motion to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.