🔗 Share this article

There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”

Thanks to this rapid automated saw, which turned timber to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.

“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion while advancing on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”

Which leads us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful creation.