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There are numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.

As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”

Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, which converted timber to planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.

The First True Industrial Machine

The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed the rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.

“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion while moving with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”

A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.