Can You Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe

One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber into planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.

“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward motion and advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”

A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Round and Up

Construct a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.