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

As per a new book, though, that honor should go to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”

Thanks to this rapid automated saw, which turned timber into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe.

The First True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step per cycle.

“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”

Which brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)

I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.