🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Before automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.” Owing to this rapid automated saw, which converted timber to planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the world. The First True Industrial Machine The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment each cycle. “Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.” Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine. Circular to Vertical Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.) I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.