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There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”

Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber into boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.

The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion while moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”

A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful creation.