Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe

There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”

Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which turned logs to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment per cycle.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”

Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.