🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped the Modern World There are many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor. As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Before mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.” Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, that turned timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the world. The Original True Manufacturing Device Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step each stroke. “Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.” A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.) The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.