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One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”

Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted logs into planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.

The First Genuine Industrial Device

The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted its circular motion to up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.

“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”

A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.

Round and Up

Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)

The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.

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