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

According to a new book, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned logs to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.

The First True Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward stroke and advancing with each return stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of basic components.”

A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine that turns rotary movement to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)

I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.

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