Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary World

One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”

Thanks to this rapid automated saw, that turned timber into boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the rotary movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.

“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion and advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”

A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)

I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.