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One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”

Owing to their rapid automated saw, that turned timber to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.

The First Genuine Industrial Machine

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the rotary movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step each cycle.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward motion while moving with each return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”

A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a machine that turns rotary movement into vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)

The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.