Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World

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

As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which turned timber to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its rotary movement to vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step each cycle.

“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”

A fact that leads us to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)

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

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.