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There are many candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”

Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned timber into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary motion to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion and advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”

A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components do not collapse.)

The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.