Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped our Modern World

There are many candidates for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

As per a new book, however, that title should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which turned logs into planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted its circular motion to vertical action to power the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.

“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine that turns circular motion to up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.