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One can find many contenders for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”

Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, which converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world.

The First True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted its rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine them so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward stroke and moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”

A fact that brings us to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)

The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.