🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.” Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which converted timber to planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the world. The Original True Manufacturing Machine The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle. “Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion while advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.” A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so the parts do not fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK with the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.