🔗 Share this article Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary World One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. “Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than seven days.” Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, which converted logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the world. The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its circular movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle. “Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.” A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine. Circular to Vertical Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.) The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.