Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern World

There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”

Owing to their speedy automated cutter, that turned timber to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the globe.

The Original True Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Each element was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)

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

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