🔗 Share this article Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped our Contemporary Globe One can find many contenders for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor. As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.” Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, which turned timber into planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe. The First True Industrial Device Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular movement into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle. “Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke while advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.” A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine. Circular to Vertical Design a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.) The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.