Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped our Modern Globe

There are many contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”

Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted the rotary movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.

“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward motion while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.