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There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

As per a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, which converted timber to boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment each cycle.

“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending motion while moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”

Which brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind this historic machine.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.