Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World

One can find many contenders for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”

Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that turned logs to planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.

The Original True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary movement to up-and-down motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step each cycle.

“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward motion while advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”

Which brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.