🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Contemporary World One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a new book, though, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.” Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, that converted logs into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world. The Original True Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the circular movement into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step each stroke. “Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke while advancing on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.” A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Round and Up Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.) I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.