🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern World One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor. According to a new book, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593. “Before automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced within seven days.” Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs into planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world. The Original True Manufacturing Device The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke. “Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.” A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention. Circular to Vertical Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.) The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.