🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.” Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that turned timber into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural dominance across the continent and the world. The Original True Manufacturing Machine The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke. “Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.” A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.) The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.