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There are numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”

Thanks to this rapid automated saw, which converted timber to boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the circular movement to vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step each stroke.

“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every descending stroke and moving on every return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”

Which brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)

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

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.