Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Modern World

There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which converted logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.

The Original True Industrial Device

The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its circular movement into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion and moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”

Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.