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One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”

Thanks to their rapid automated saw, that converted timber into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.

The First True Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the circular motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step per stroke.

“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward motion and moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.