🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Modern World One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.” Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe. The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke. “Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.” Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine. Round and Up Design a machine which converts circular motion into vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.