Cornelis Corneliszoon

Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest, or Krelis Lootjes (c. 1550 - c. 1600) was a Dutch windmill owner from Uitgeest who invented the wind-powered sawmill, which made the conversion of log timber into planks 30 times faster than before.

Little is known of his early life. Cornelis Cornelisz was born in the village of Uitgeest and later married Trijn Pieters, the daughter of the flour miller who owned "De Krijger" on the Meldijk there. In 1594 he built his first sawmill, a small mill which floated on a raft. In 1595 the mill was sold and moved to Alkmaar. The remains of the mill were accidentally discovered in 2004 during excavations along the Noordhollandsch Kanaal canal. His wind-powered sawmill used a crankshaft to convert a windmill's circular motion into a back-and-forward motion powering the saw. In his old age, he became a friend of the hydraulic engineer Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater who mentioned him as the inventor of the saag molen in his book on the Haarlemmermeer. They met during his first major hydraulic project, which was to create the Beemster, a polder that was pumped dry during the period 1609 through 1612.

He was granted a patent on his crankshaft in December, 1593 and was granted an additional patent for improvements in December, 1597 that was documented in the Resolutiën van de Staten van Holland on December, 1597. In his request, he called himself a farmer who needed to support a wife and children. His sawmill "Het Juffertje" soon developed into a more advanced version, a type known today as the paltrokmolen (post mill), which played a key part in the economic success of the Dutch Republic during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century by enabling the mass construction of ships for overseas trade. The mill turned the Zaan district, north of Amsterdam, into the world's first industrial area.

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