🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged the Contemporary World One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.” Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, that turned logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance across the continent and the world. The Original True Manufacturing Device The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary movement into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step per cycle. “Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending stroke while moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.” Which leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind this historic invention. Round and Up Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.) The solution returns later today UK with the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.