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There are many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, that converted logs into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe.

The First Genuine Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”

Which brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Round and Up

Design a machine which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.