Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Modern Globe

One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that converted timber to boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.

The Original True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted its rotary motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary movement into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”

A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.