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There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which turned timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic dominance across the continent and the globe.

The Original True Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed its circular movement to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step each stroke.

“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion and advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”

A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Round and Up

Design a machine which converts circular motion to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)

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

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