Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe

One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

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

“Before automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”

Owing to their speedy automated cutter, which converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.

The Original Genuine Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into vertical motion for the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke while advancing on every return stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of basic components.”

A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Round and Up

Design a machine which converts circular motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)

I’ll be back later today UK with the solution.

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.