Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe

There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which converted logs into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.

The Original Genuine Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed the circular movement into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward motion and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”

Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.

Round and Up

Design a machine that turns rotary motion to 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 one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.