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There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted its circular movement into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment per stroke.

“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.”

Which leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine which converts circular movement to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)

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

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.