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

According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs into boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed its rotary movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)

I’ll be back later today UK with the solution.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.