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There are many candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.

According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Before automated cutting, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”

Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber into planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.

The First True Industrial Device

The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted the rotary movement to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.

“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion and moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.”

A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.

Circular to Vertical

Design a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.