🔗 Share this article Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged our Modern World One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor. According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Prior to automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.” Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned logs to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic supremacy across Europe and the world. The First True Industrial Machine The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed the circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each stroke. “Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.” A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention. Round and Up Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.