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There are many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, that turned logs into boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its circular motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every descending motion and moving on every return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)

I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.

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