🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern World There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within seven days.” Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber into boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the world. The Original Genuine Industrial Machine The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary movement to vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead a measured step each cycle. “Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward motion and moving with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.” Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Round and Up Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.) I’ll be back later today UK with the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.