Compass And Gunpowder

Chinese Inventions

Chinese People are always known for their capacity of inventions, they have designed new machines and many different products to be used in our daily life. All these inventions occurred many centuries ago. The input of the Ancients Chinese, has been recognized by our society, but has created many doubts among us about if actually Chinese people were the real inventors of such amazing tools, such as  the Compass and the Gunpowder.

       I.            Compass

1.       The Finding of the compass has been a doubt, since history had brought to us that probably others like Arab or European besides the Chinese may had also invented the Compass, since the primeval compasses agree with any of these primitive cultures. In certain sources such as “Chinese inventions that rocked the world."  Talks about that the compass was design by Ancients Chinese to pinpoint directions in an accurate way.

a)      Being Invented by Ancient Chinese between 770 and 221 B.C.

b)      The first compasses were called, “South-pointers”.

c)       The Compasses shapes were later changed from spoon-shaped stones to magnetic needles making them easier to be carried.

d)      Also, in “Pointing to the Future.” European Alexander Neckman had mention the Compass for the first time in 1180 calling it, “The lodestone needle.” Which it was mounted on a cork and allowed to float in a bowl of water. This idea flows later in 1269. The Compass has fascinated the world, and had made possible all voyages in the ocean and the discovery of new places such as Continents, islands, and other types of land. The Compass has becoming one of the greatest inventions that the world possesses and it had contributed to our society and especially for the U.S. Navy and to make new discoveries.

     II.            Gunpowder

2.       Ancient Chinese Alchemist, were trying to invent something that would make them live eternally, but accidentally they invented a chemical that explodes. After this, this invention has taken part in many of the world self-destructions “The War.” These inventions have contributed to the self-destruction of the human being. When gunpowder was invented, we have not realized that we have created a weapon against the human being, which is indestructible.  They were two types of Gunpowder: Mining Gunpowder that was used many century ago and Gunpowder that it still being use now a days.

a)      Before the invention of the Gunpowder by Ancients Chinese, they believe that the first use of Mining Gunpowder was the technique used by Joshua to capture Jericho in year 72 AD.  According to some historical assumptions.

b)      “ Mining,” which consisted of excavating a passageway or gallery  below the ground, once completed it was fill out with flammables materials in order  to collapse, capture, and kill their enemies. This method was used by the Jewish Army against the Roman forces of Vespasian in A.D. 72.  The Military Mining operations first used the gunpowder mines around the year 1250; this had replaced the flammables by seeing remarkable results used against the Italians towards the end of the 15th century.

c)       The Gunpowder, as some say we believe it was invented by the Ancients Chinese. They created a  mixture called “Huo Yao” or Fire Chemical, Huo Yao was invented between A.D. 150 and 850. Alchemist Chinese added a different chemical to the mixture making it more powerful gunpowder, this chemical is called Saltpeter. The latest gunpowder was made by saltpaper, charcoal, and sulfur.

d)      Gunpowder has been through history an important invention, and it has been used against our enemies to defend ourselves. Gunpowder has been present in all type of war that it is in History after the year 72 AD.

In conclusion, Compass and Gunpowder have attributed to our society throughout the history. They both have played an important role to humanity. The discovery of the compass and gunpowder has been one of the biggest wins we've had, but at the same time has been a weapon of self-destruction.

Source Citation

Anderson, Leigh. "The Fab 4: Chinese inventions that rocked the world." Appleseeds Jan. 2008: 24+. General OneFile. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA177056777&v=2.1&u=lincclin_mdcc&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w

"Pointing To The Future. (Cover Story)." Economist 353.8151 (1999): 98. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.

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Baker, David Christopher. "The Great-Grandfather Of Modern Land Mines Might Well Be A Tunnel Under Jericho." Military History 19.1 (2002): 20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. Persistent link to this record (Permalink): Persistent link to this record (Permalink): http://db16.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6097375&site=ehost-live

Assigment 1

Technology in the Medieval World

• Salisbury, Joyce E. "Technology in the Medieval World." Daily Life through History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 20 Sept. 2011. http://dailylife2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1426002?terms=china+inventionsPrint this document
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The study of technology usually means to study practical or applied arts, but basically it concerns those artifacts that allow people to do more work more efficiently than they might otherwise have done. Thus the history of technology includes everything from stone tools to modern computers. While we are accustomed to rapidly adopting new technologies (our computer software is almost obsolete the moment we load it), the adoption of new technologies in the past was more complex than simple inventions. A new idea had to coincide with a perceived need, which often depended on other inventions to support it. For example, reading glasses were invented in the Middle Ages but did not spread widely until the printing press and better artificial lights gave more people more to read and more light to do so. Thus to study the progress of technology through history requires us to look closely at intersecting aspects of daily life.

One of the main impulses for the adoption (indeed, invention) of new technology is the lack of power to get things done. Through the ancient world, there were two main sources of power—human and animal. In places where there were large populations (Egypt, China, and India, for example), human labor sufficed for most of the work, even though people are less efficient. For example, people assumed it took about seven men to haul as much weight as one horse, but humans were more flexible. After hauling, people could be put to work to build walls, for example, where a horse could not.

Sources of energy also push invention. For example, in preconquest South America, Indians did not develop the wheel even though there were examples of wheeled miniature toys. Why build wheeled vehicles if there were no domestic animals to pull them or good roads? Wheeled vehicles would just mean that people would have to pull heavier loads than they could carry, which was not a good trade-off. Once again, technology is shaped by need and a complex series of available items.

A final determinant of technology is access to raw materials. In Polynesia, people had no metal tools, utensils, or nails. Thus their constructions were limited. Europe and Asia benefited not only from abundant raw materials but from sustained contacts that led inventions to spread. The Chinese invented things as simple and useful as the wheelbarrow, which spread to Europe in the 12th century, to things as complex as suspension bridges. Communication offered great advantage to the spread of technology.

The Byzantine Empire inherited the Romans' technological expertise and at the beginning of the Middle Ages was more advanced than lands farther west. They also had the advantage of being on the crossroads of trade with China and the Muslim world. Late in the Middle Ages, however, their political and economic situation interfered with advances in technology, and western Europe surpassed the Byzantine Empire.

Western Europe experienced a technological revolution in the Middle Ages, beginning in the 11th century. Unlike China, which had a large population to perform labor, Europe had a shortage of labor. Necessity stimulated the invention and wide use of wind and water power to supplement—and in many instances replace—human and animal power. Water mills in particular offered reliable sources of energy all along rivers; these wheels did everything from grinding grain to crushing minerals, pounding cloth, and even powering a mechanical saw that could more easily cut the great oak forests that supplied the materials for castles. Windmills appeared a bit later in Europe and China. They were probably invented in the Middle East, spreading first through Muslim lands.

Beyond power, the heart of the technology of the Middle Ages in Europe and Asia was iron. Iron smelting before the 19th century had remained roughly unchanged from its beginnings about 1200 BCE, when metallurgists learned that when iron is repeatedly heated in a hot charcoal furnace, carbon molecules combine with iron molecules to form a reliable metal known as carbon steel. The Chinese, however, had developed ways to smelt the ore at very high temperatures and led the world in producing cast iron and sharp blades. The Muslims quickly learned the techniques of sword making from Asia, and when Western crusaders confronted Muslim armies, their own pounded iron swords were clearly inferior to the Muslims', made of Eastern smelted steel.

The Vikings were in the forefront of technological advance when it came to their magnificent longboats, built to withstand the rough waters of the North Sea. Once again, we can see in this development that necessity yielded invention—these intrepid sailors did what they had to do to navigate their waters. The Middle Ages may look to the modern reader like an era of very low technology, when people all over the world worked hard with relatively simple tools. Yet this era produced a great technological revolution from China to Europe as people found new sources of energy to do work and new inventions to help them do it. Perhaps more than anything, they awakened the idea that technology could bring positive change—this is the idea that shapes our consciousness.

Joyce E. Salisbury
Further Reading

Braudel, F. The Structures of Everyday Life. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.

MLA Citation

Salisbury, Joyce E. "Technology in the Medieval World." Daily Life through History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.