🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Modern World There are many candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a new book, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.” Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted timber to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe. The Original True Manufacturing Machine The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted its rotary motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke. “Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.” Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention. Round and Up Design a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.) The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.