Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged our Modern Globe

There are numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”

Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.

The Original True Industrial Device

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its circular movement to vertical motion for the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing on every return stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.”

Which leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)

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

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.