Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe

There are many contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”

Owing to this speedy automated cutter, which converted timber into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural dominance in the continent and the world.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed its rotary movement into up-and-down motion for the saw. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”

A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.