Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World

One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”

Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which converted logs into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.

“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion and advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”

A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Round and Up

Design a machine that turns circular movement into vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.