🔗 Share this article Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern World One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a new book, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.” Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted logs into boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the world. The First True Industrial Device The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke. “Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward stroke and advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.” Which brings us to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Construct a machine that turns rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.) The solution returns later today UK time with the answer. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.