🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern Globe There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.” Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance across Europe and the globe. The First Genuine Industrial Device The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted its circular movement into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per cycle. “Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke while moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.” Which brings us to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.