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

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

“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build ships faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.

The Original Genuine Industrial Device

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the circular movement into vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step each cycle.

“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward motion and moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”

A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)

I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.