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One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers working for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”

Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned logs to planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.

The Original True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular movement into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.

“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion while advancing on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”

Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement into up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)

I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.