Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped the Contemporary Globe

One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its circular movement to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step each cycle.

“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending motion while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.”

A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)

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

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.