Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe

There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”

Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which converted logs into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the circular motion to vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step per cycle.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”

Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest invention.