Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern Globe

One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, which turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.

The First Genuine Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed the circular motion into vertical action for the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward motion and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”

A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.

Round and Up

Construct a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.

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