Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped our Modern World

There are many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which converted logs to planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Device

The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.

“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)

The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.