Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe

There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.”

Owing to their rapid automated cutter, that turned logs into planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster compared to anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.

The Original True Industrial Device

The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted its circular motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.

“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that they acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke and advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”

Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Round and Up

Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so the components do not collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.