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There are many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.

According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.

“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”

Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that turned timber to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.

The Original True Manufacturing Machine

The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its circular movement into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.

“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion and advancing with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”

A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.

Circular to Vertical

Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)

The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.

In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.