🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.” Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, that converted timber to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance across the continent and the globe. The First True Industrial Device Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its rotary movement to up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke. “Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke and advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever use of basic parts.” Which brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention. Round and Up Design a machine that turns circular motion into vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.) I’ll be back later today UK with the solution. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.