Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Forged our Modern World

One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned logs to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary motion into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment each stroke.

“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending motion and advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”

Which brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.

Round and Up

Design a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)

The solution returns later today UK with the answer.

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.