Four Grate Invention Of China

1925 Words8 Pages
Four Great Inventions of ancient China Introduction China has been the source of many significant inventions, including the Four Great Inventions of ancient China: paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (both woodblock and movable type). The list below contains these and other inventions. The Chinese invented technologies involving mechanics, hydraulics, and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, and warfare. By the Warring States Period (403–221 BC), they had advanced metallurgic technology, including the blast furnace and cupola furnace, while the finery forge and puddling process were known by the Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220). A sophisticated economic system in China gave birth to inventions such as paper money during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). The invention of gunpowder by the 10th century led to an array of inventions such as the fire lance, land mine, naval mine, hand cannon, exploding cannonballs, multistage rocket, and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads. With the navigational aid of the 11th-century compass and ability to steer at high sea with the 1st-century sternpost rudder, pre-modern Chinese sailors sailed as far as East Africa and Egypt. In water-powered clockworks, the pre-modern Chinese had used the escapement mechanism since the 8th century and the endless power-transmitting chain drive in the 11th century. They also made large mechanical puppet theaters driven by waterwheels and carriage wheels and wine-serving automatons driven by paddle wheel boats. The contemporaneous Peiligang and Pengtoushan cultures represent the oldest Neolithic cultures of China and were formed sometime around 7000 BC. Some of the first inventions of Neolithic, prehistoric China include semi-lunar and rectangular stone knives, stone hoes and spades, the cultivation of

More about Four Grate Invention Of China

Open Document