Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged the Modern Globe

There are many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber into planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.

The First True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed its rotary movement into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward motion while advancing on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”

A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement to up-and-down action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)

I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.