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Ancient Chinese Inventions: World Cultures
Ancient Chinese Inventions: World Cultures
World Cultures
Decimal System
An example of how the Chinese used the decimal system appears in a transcription from the 13th century BCE, in which '547 days' is written 'Five hundred plus four decades plus seven of days'.
The Seismograph
Earthquakes had long plagued China. Chang Heng, a scientist, mathematician and inventor designed the first seismograph around 132 CE, a bronze vessel with an inverted weighted bob in the center which would release a small bronze ball through one of eight grooved openings when a tremor caused the bob to sway.
Paper
The invention of paper from hemp fibers dates to the second century BCE. The oldest surviving piece of paper was found in a tomb near Xian and dates from between the years 140 and 87 BCE.
Lacquer ware
Lacquer dates from the 13th century BCE. Lacquer is a plastic varnish that has great powers of preservation, strength and durability (like plastic). The Chinese obtained lacquer by tapping lacquer trees and used it for furniture, screens, coating cooking utensils and making weapon accessories.
The Abacus
By the 14th century the abacus was in common use. The abacus is a wooden frame with a horizontal bar that divides the upper section of the frame from the rest. Columns of vertical wood rods hold counting beads. The counting beads are moved over to represent the units, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on.
What is this?
Compass
The spoon or ladle is of magnetic lodestone, and the plate is of bronze. The circular center represents Heaven, and the square plate represents Earth. The handle of the spoon points south. The spoon is a symbolic representation of the Great Bear. The plate bears Chinese characters which denote the eight main directions of north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, and symbols from the I Ching oracle books which were correlated with directions. Separately marked are the finer gradations of twenty-four compass points, and along the outermost edge are the twenty-eight lunar mansions.
Wheelbarrow
Barbed wire being transported by a traditional Chinese wheelbarrow near Shanghai in 1938. This type, with the large central wheel, can be pulled from the front as well as pushed from behind, and can carry more than two tons-The Genius of China
Kites
They strongly believed in the existence of evil spirits and thought that the sound of this explosion was loud enough to scare the spirits off.