Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern World

One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which converted logs to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the globe.

The Original Genuine Industrial Machine

The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the rotary motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and moving on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”

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

Round and Up

Design a machine which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)

The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.