Ancient Chinese Contributions: Inventions

Ancient Chinese Contributions: Inventions

Introduction

In many areas, the Chinese have noted significant achievements, which were then seized the inhabitants of other regions in Asia, and from them in turn took them to the Arabs and Europeans. Until now mankind benefits from the many achievements of Chinese scientific thought, an example might be even traditional Chinese medicine. Suffice it to mention two, very important: printing and the compass. True, it is very difficult to determine who the authors of many inventions authentic are because, very often, both for modesty and lack of interest, the inventors of the past did not allow their names to be disseminated among the people. But according to numerous accounts currently available, it seems doubtful that these two inventions should be attributed to the Chinese people (Laufer, 1919).

Discussion

The development of civilization in ancient China led to the emergence of many scientific and technical inventions, which the Europeans learned about the many centuries later. Chinese Craft had a feature that has not been observed in other countries, namely the capacity for technical innovation. However, the printing was known in China for a long time, but the perfection of their technique is only reached the sixth century AD, when Chinese emperors of those years, ordered printed, among others, the four books of Confucius and some classics for use in the education of youth. The technique used by the Chinese was the woodcut was printed in sheets of wood. But by the tenth century, the Chinese used and also separate copper letters to make the composition of the text. The use of these letters came in 1205 copper from China to Japan (Temple, 1986).

The discovery of the magnet by the Chinese goes back to ancient times. In Tchuwen etymological dictionary, compiled by Hiu-kiun, the term is already magnet and the explanation that describes it, it says that name of a stone which gives direction to a needle. However, a parallel passage, but more detailed and precise, is in a large dictionary Pei-wen-yun-fu compound in the ninth century. It says there that already under the Tsin dynasty (265-419 AD) sailors had found south direction using the magnet (Temple, 1986).

The famous Chinese alchemist invented the gunpowder. They were trying to find an elixir of life. The invention dates back to the 9th century. The grenade bomb of today is a derivative of the gunpowder as introduced by the Chinese alchemists. Over ...