🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Forged our Modern World There are many contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.” Thanks to their speedy automated saw, which turned logs into boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance across Europe and the world. The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step per stroke. “Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.” Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Design a machine which converts circular motion into vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the components do not fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.