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One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”

Thanks to their speedy mechanical cutter, which converted logs to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per cycle.

“Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion and moving with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.”

A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts circular motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)

I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.