Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped our Contemporary Globe

There are many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Owing to their speedy automated saw, that converted logs to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and moving with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”

A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement into up-and-down action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.