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There are many contenders for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”

Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, that converted timber to planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed the circular motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke and moving on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”

A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.