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One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

As per a new book, though, that title should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, which turned logs to planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step each cycle.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke while advancing on every upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”

Which brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement to up-and-down motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.