Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe

One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.

The First Genuine Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step per stroke.

“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward stroke and moving on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.