Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe

There are many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, though, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”

Owing to their rapid automated cutter, that converted timber to boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.

The First Genuine Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary movement into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.

“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward motion and advancing on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)

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

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.