Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged our Modern Globe

One can find many candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”

Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.

“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward motion and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”

Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.