🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern Globe One can find numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.” Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance in Europe and the world. The Original True Industrial Device Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the rotary motion into vertical action to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step per cycle. “Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.” Which brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine. Round and Up Construct a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the components don’t fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.