🔗 Share this article Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Before automated cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.” Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber into planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe. The Original True Industrial Machine Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its circular movement to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step per stroke. “Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.” Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine. Round and Up Design a machine that turns rotary movement to up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.) I’ll be back later today UK with the answer. In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.