🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped the Contemporary World One can find numerous candidates for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine. According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.” Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned timber into boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world. The First Genuine Industrial Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary motion into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke. “Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke while moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.” Which brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts do not fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.