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There are numerous contenders for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Before automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that converted logs to boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.

The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.

“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion while advancing with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”

Which leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.