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

According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”

Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, which turned timber to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary motion into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle.

“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward motion while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”

A fact that brings us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.