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There are many contenders for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that converted logs into planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.

“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while moving with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”

A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

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

The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.