Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged the Contemporary World

One can find many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”

Owing to their speedy automated saw, which converted logs into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.

The Original Genuine Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its rotary movement to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step each cycle.

“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so they operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion while moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.

Round and Up

Design a machine that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)

The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.