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There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.

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

“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”

Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted timber to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.

The First True Manufacturing Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke.

“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending motion and moving on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”

A fact that brings us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.

Circular to Vertical

Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)

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

Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.