🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern Globe There are many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.” Thanks to their speedy automated saw, which turned logs to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe. The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted its rotary motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step each stroke. “Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward stroke and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.” A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention. Circular to Vertical Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.) I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.