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Contrary to popular belief, Europeans didn’t invent everything good and amazing in history. Many technological breakthroughs might have been popularised by Europeans but the origins of some everyday objects come from ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians, Mayans and the Chinese. In this issue of Pub Convos, let's take a look at the Four Great Inventions and how these inventions help fuelled capitalism in the world.
The Compass
The nautical compass used to navigate the high seas was invented during the Han Dynasty. An early version of the navigation tool was a lodestone (magnetic stone) placed on a bronze plate where the stone would spin to point along the North South Axis. The popular needle suspended in water was also recorded in Chinese writing as early as 1088. It is believed that compasses back then were used to orientate oneself during the night rather than widespread navigation.
Gunpowder
The earliest record of a gunpowder like substance was first recorded in the 9th century when alchemists were trying to formulate ‘the elixir of life’. The first proper recipe of making gunpowder was first recorded around the 11th century. By the end of the 11th century, the fire lance was invented where projectiles were shoved into tubes before being ignited much like the eventual cannons were invented but seldom used in warfare until the start of the 12th century. Funny how centuries later, China was decimated in the Opium Wars because they lacked the weaponry to battle the British ship cannons.
Paper and Printing
Since these 2 inventions are so closely tied together, I thought I would speak about them in tandem. In my opinion these are the greatest inventions as they allowed records to be recorded and the communication between cultures and civilisation. The process of making paper was first discovered by Cai Lun in the year 106 CE. The water in plant fibres were drained using old fishing nets and then pressed and dried to create paper. However, paper was mainly used for wrapping in its early days and was only used as a writing medium 100 years later. The Song dynasty was the first government to issue paper currency in nearly 1000 years after the discovery of papermaking techniques. The invention of the printing press is largely credited to Gutenberg and rightly so as it was a quicker and more efficient way to type Latin characters. However, the invention of printing text itself originated in China where woodblock printing was used as it suited the characters more. To this day, woodblock printing still survives in remote communities and is an ode to the historical inventions of Ancient Chinese civilisation.
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