Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe

One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, which turned timber into boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the globe.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Device

The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the circular movement into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step per cycle.

“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke while moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.”

Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.