🔗 Share this article Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.” Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs to planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the globe. The First Genuine Industrial Device The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed the circular motion to vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke. “Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion while advancing on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.” A fact that brings us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Round and Up Design a machine that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.