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There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”

Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that converted timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.

The First True Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular movement into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.

“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”

Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.

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