Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World

One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced within a week.”

Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, which turned logs into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed the circular motion into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”

A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into up-and-down action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)

The solution returns later today UK featuring the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.