Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Modern Globe

One can find numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, which converted timber into planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world.

The Original True Industrial Device

The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per cycle.

“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”

A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)

The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.

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