Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged the Contemporary Globe

One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”

Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted timber to boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted its circular movement into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.

“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts circular motion to vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful creation.