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There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step each stroke.

“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending stroke while moving on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.”

A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism that turns circular movement to vertical motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.