🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.” Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe. The Original True Industrial Machine Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted its rotary movement to vertical motion for the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle. “Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke while advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.” Which brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine. Circular to Vertical Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.