Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Noteworthy inventions of the ancient Chinese

When you have a written language that passes down knowledge, uninterrupted (no dark ages)for thousands of years, you can come up with some pretty great inventions.

Possibly the four greatest inventions are: Paper (~200 BC), the Printing Press (~650 AD), Gunpowder (1000 AD), and the Compass (~0 AD). But they came up with many other advancements, including:

* Acupuncture ~220 BC (may date much further back)
* Archaeology, catalogues and epigraphy ~1000 AD
* Anti-malarial properties of artemisia ~Used since 800 AD, confirmed scientifically in 1972
* Armillary sphere, hydraulic-powered ~52 BC
* Automatic opening doors, foot-activated trigger ~600 AD
* Banknotes ~700 AD
* Beer with High-alcohol content ~1000 BC
* Bell
* Bellows, hydraulic-powered ~50 AD
* Belt drive ~15 BC
* Blast furnace ~300 BC
* Bomb, cast iron ~1300 AD
* Borehole drilling (for mining)~0 AD
* Bristle toothbrush ~1500 AD
* Bulkhead partition ~1200 AD
* Calendar year at 365.2425 days ~550 BC
* Cast iron ~500 BC
* Chain drive, endless power-transmitting ~1100 AD
* Chemical warfare using bellows, mustard smoke, and lime ~300 BC
* Chopsticks ~1200 BC
* Chromium, use of ~210 AD
* Circumnavigation of the globe ~ 1420 AD
* Civil service examinations ~0 AD
* Co-fusion steel process (600 AD)
* Coffin ~5000 BC
* Coke as fuel ~1100 AD
* Contour canal (made with locks for traveling uphill) ~200 BC
* Crossbow, handheld ~500 BC
* Cupola furnace (for melting and casting iron)~ 200 BC
* Dagger Axe
* Deficiency diseases, correction by proper diet ~200 AD
* Diabetes, recognition and treatment ~700 AD
* Dominoes ~1200 AD
* Drawloom (for making fabric)~400 BC
* Endocrinology, isolation of sex and pituitary hormones from urine ~1110 AD
* Escapement (used in clockworks) ~700
* Exploding cannonballs ~1350 AD
* Fermented beverages ~
* Field mill ~350 AD
* Finery forge (for making wrought iron)~200 BC
* Fire lance: The fire lance was a proto-gun ~1000 AD
* Fireworks ~1000 AD
* Fishing reel ~400 AD
* Flamethrower, double piston and gunpowder-activated
* Flare, military signalling ~1100 AD
* Forensic entomology ~1247 AD
* Fork ~2000 BC
* Gas cylinder ~0 AD
* Gimbal ~180 AD
* Hand cannon ~1200
* Heavy moldboard iron plow ~500 BC
* Horse harness and collar ~400 BC
* India ink ~3000 BC to 200 AD (scholars disagree)
* Inoculation, treatment of smallpox ~ 1550 AD
* Jacob's staff (for measuring size at distance)~1050 AD
* Junk Ships ~200 AD
* Kite ~500 BC
* Land mine ~ 1300 AD
* Lacquer
* Leeboard: To avoid leeward drift caused by the force of wind while sailing ~300 BC
* Maglev wind power generators 2006 AD
* Manned flight with kites ~ 550 AD
* Match, non-friction: The earliest type of match for lighting fire was made in China ~ 577 AD,
* Mechanical theater ~ 340 AD
* Millet, cultivation of
* Multistage rocket ~1300 AD
* Natural gas as fuel ~ 350 BC
* Naval mines ~1400 AD
* Negative numbers in mathmatics ~179 AD
* Noodle ~2000 BC
* Oar, rowing ~6000 BC
* Open-spandrel segmental arch bridge, fully stone 605 AD
* Pinhole camera ~ 400 BC
* Playing cards ~ 850 AD
* Plowshare ~3500 BC
* Porcelain ~ 700 AD
* Pound lock, for raising rivers and enabling ship navigation (984 AD)
* Restaurant menu ~ 1000 AD
* Rice, cultivation of ~7000 BC
* Rocket bombs, aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads ~ 1400 AD
* Rotary fan, for purposes of air conditioning manual (~ 0 AD) and water-powered (~800 AD)
* Rudder, stern-mounted and vertical axial ~ 100 BC
* Salt, use of ~6000 BC
* Silk ~3630 BC
* Soybean, cultivation of ~2000 BC
* Steamer, pottery appliance for cooking ~5000 BC
* Seismometer 132 AD
* Steel made through oxygenation of cast iron ~ 150 BC
Stirrup 302 AD
* Suspension bridge using iron chains ~ 1402 AD
* Tea ~ 2000 BC
* Thyroid hormones to treat goiters ~ 600 AD
* Tofu ~ 150 BC
* Toilet paper 589 AD
* Traction trebuchet catapult ~ 400 BC
* Tuned bells ~ 800 BC
* Underwater salvage operations ~ 219 BC
* Urn (pottery burial) ~7000 BC
* Wheelbarrow ~ 0 AD

2 comments:

  1. I am looking for new updates dying to read more stuff from you.

    Term papers

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Term papers, thank you for your interest. I post about once a week here and you can see them all at www.acfom.blogspot.com

    I also wrote a book called "The Asian Diet: Simple secrets for eating right, losing weight, and being well" that you can get from the library or buy from amazon for $10. www.theasiandiet.com has more information about it.

    ReplyDelete