eeed lcd displays for raspberry pi made in china

The historical region now known as China experienced a history involving mechanics, hydraulics and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, naval architecture and warfare. Use of the plow during the Neolithic period Longshan culture (c. 3000–c. 2000 BC) allowed for high agricultural production yields and rise of Chinese civilization during the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1050 BC).multiple-tube seed drill and the heavy moldboard iron plow enabled China to sustain a much larger population through improvements in agricultural output.

By the Warring States period (403–221 BC), inhabitants of China had advanced metallurgic technology, including the blast furnace and cupola furnace, while the finery forge and puddling process were known by the Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220). A sophisticated economic system in imperial China gave birth to inventions such as paper money during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). The invention of gunpowder in the mid 9th century during the Tang dynasty led to an array of inventions such as the fire lance, land mine, naval mine, hand cannon, exploding cannonballs, multistage rocket and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads. Differential gears (first used in the Greek Antikythera mechanism)south-pointing chariot for terrestrial navigation by the 3rd century during the Three Kingdoms. With the navigational aid of the 11th century compass and ability to steer at sea with the 1st century sternpost rudder, premodern Chinese sailors sailed as far as East Africa.escapement mechanism since the 8th century and the endless power-transmitting chain drive in the 11th century. They also made large mechanical puppet theaters driven by waterwheels and carriage wheels and wine-serving automatons driven by paddle wheel boats.

For the purposes of this list, inventions are regarded as technological firsts developed in China, and as such does not include foreign technologies which the Chinese acquired through contact, such as the windmill from the Middle East or the telescope from early modern Europe. It also does not include technologies developed elsewhere and later invented separately by the Chinese, such as the odometer, water wheel, and chain pump. Scientific, mathematical or natural discoveries made by the Chinese, changes in minor concepts of design or style and artistic innovations do not appear on the list.

The following is a list of the Four Great Inventions—as designated by Joseph Needham (1900–1995), a British scientist, author and sinologist known for his research on the history of Chinese science and technology.

Although it is recorded that the Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220) court eunuch Cai Lun (50 AD – AD 121) invented the pulp papermaking process and established the use of new materials used in making paper, ancient padding and wrapping paper artifacts dating to the 2nd century BC have been found in China, the oldest example of pulp papermaking being a map from Fangmatan, Tianshui;was in widespread use, replacing traditional but more expensive writing mediums such as strips of bamboo rolled into threaded scrolls, strips of silk, wet clay tablets hardened later in a furnace, and wooden tablets.Alxa League, where Han Dynasty troops had deserted their position in AD 110 following a Xiongnu attack.mulberry tree bark, hemp, old linens and fish nets created a pulp that was pounded into paste and stirred with water; a wooden frame sieve with a mat of sewn reeds was then dunked into the mixture, which was then shaken and then dried into sheets of paper that were bleached under the exposure of sunlight; K.S. Tom says this process was gradually improved through leaching, polishing and glazing to produce a smooth, strong paper.

Sanskrit that was printed on hemp paper between 650 and 670 AD; it was unearthed in 1974 from a Tang tomb near Xi"an.dharani Buddhist sutra discovered in 1966, bearing extinct Chinese writing characters used only during the reign of China"s only self-ruling empress, Wu Zetian (r. 690–705), is dated no earlier than 704 and preserved in a Silla Korean temple stupa built-in 751.Kaiyuan Za Bao was made available in AD 713. However, the earliest known book printed at regular size is the Tang Dynasty (618–907), a 5.18 m (17 ft) long scroll which bears the date 868 AD.Tsien Tsuen-hsuin write that the cutting and printing techniques used for the delicate calligraphy of the Diamond Sutra book are much more advanced and refined than the miniature Dharani sutra printed earlier.

Evidence of gunpowder"s first use in China comes from the Tang dynasty (618–907).recipes for gunpowder were written by Zeng Gongliang, Ding Du and Yang Weide in the incendiary bombs launched from catapults, thrown down from defensive walls, or lowered down the wall by use of iron chains operated by a swape lever.trebuchet catapults mounted on forecastles of naval ships ensured the victory of Song over Jin forces at the Battle of Caishi in 1161, while the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) used gunpowder bombs during their failed invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281.nitrate levels of up to 91%) and gunpowder weaponry more advanced and deadly, as evidenced in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) military manuscript Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and Liu Bowen (1311–1375). It was completed in 1412, a long while after Liu"s death, with a preface added by the Jiao in its Nanyang publication.

A model in Kaifeng of a Chinese ladle-and-bowl type compass used for geomancy in the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD); the historical authenticity of the model has been questioned by Li Shu-hua (1954).

Although an ancient hematite artifact from the Olmec era in Mexico dating to roughly 1000 BC indicates the possible use of the lodestone compass long before it was described in China, the Olmecs did not have iron which the Chinese would discover could be magnetised by contact with lodestone.Guanzi, compasses for divination and geomancy and not yet for navigation.Wang Chong (27 – c. 100 AD) stated in chapter 52: "This instrument resembles a spoon and when it is placed on a plate on the ground, the handle points to the south".Lunheng.Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) was the first to accurately describe both magnetic declination (in discerning true north) and the magnetic needle compass in his Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) was the first to mention use of the compass specifically for navigation at sea in his book published in 1119.thermoremanence compass of heated iron or steel shaped as a fish and placed in a bowl of water which produced a weak magnetic force via remanence and induction; the Wujing Zongyao recorded that it was used as a pathfinder along with the mechanical south-pointing chariot.

traditional Chinese medicinal practice of inserting needles into specific points of the body for therapeutic purposes and relieving pain, was first mentioned in the Warring States period to Han Dynasty).gold, found in the tomb of Liu Sheng (d. 113 BC), date to the Western Han (203 BC – 9 AD); the oldest known stone-carved depiction of acupuncture was made during the Eastern Han (25–220 AD); the oldest known bronze statue of an acupuncture mannequin dates to 1027 during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).

The Spinning Wheel, by Northern Song (960–1127) artist Wang Juzheng. The Chinese invented the belt drive by the 1st century BC for silk quilling devices.

A print illustration from an encyclopedia depicting men employing the fining process to make wrought iron and working a blast furnace by smelting iron ore to produce pig iron.

Du Shi (d. 38 AD) applied the use of rotating waterwheels to power the bellows of his blast furnace smelting iron, a method which continued in use in China thereafter, as evidenced by subsequent records; it is a significant invention in that iron production yields were increased and it employed all the necessary components for converting rotary motion into reciprocating motion.

pulley machine, was first mentioned in the text the Dictionary of Local Expressions by the Han Dynasty philosopher, poet, and politician Yang Xiong (53–18 BC) in 15 BC, used for a quilling machine that wound silk fibers on to bobbins for weavers" shuttles.spinning wheel.

Plants of the Southern Regions) (ca. 304 AD), attributed to Western Jin dynasty botanist Ji Han (嵇含, 263–307), in which it is mentioned that "Jiaozhi people sell ants and their nests attached to twigs looking like thin cotton envelopes, the reddish-yellow ant being larger than normal. Without such ants, southern citrus fruits will be severely insect-damaged".huang gan (huang = yellow, gan = citrus) ants (Tang Dynasty or Early Five Dynasties), in Ji Le Pian by Zhuang Jisu (Southern Song Dynasty), in the Book of Tree Planting by Yu Zhen Mu (Ming Dynasty), in the book Guangdong Xing Yu (17th century), Lingnan by Wu Zhen Fang (Qing Dynasty), in Nanyue Miscellanies by Li Diao Yuan, and others.

cast iron tools and weapons have been found in China dating to the 5th century BC, the earliest discovered Chinese blast furnaces, which produced pig iron that could be remelted and refined as cast iron in the cupola furnace, date to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, while the vast majority of early blast furnace sites discovered date to the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) period immediately following 117 BC with the establishment of state monopolies over the salt and iron industries during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141 – 87 BC); most ironwork sites discovered dating before 117 BC acted merely as foundries which made castings for iron that had been smelted in blast furnaces elsewhere in remote areas far from population centres.

Jin Dynasty (1115–1234) naval battle of 1231 against the Mongols.Subutai (1176–1248) descended on the Jin stronghold of Kaifeng, the defenders had a "thunder-crash bomb" which "consisted of gunpowder put into an iron container ... then when the fuse was lit (and the projectile shot off) there was a great explosion the noise whereof was like thunder, audible for more than a hundred half a mou. When hit, even iron armour was quite pierced through."arsenals should have several hundred thousand iron bomb shells available and that when he was in Jingzhou, about one to two thousand were produced each month for dispatch of ten to twenty thousand at a time to Xiangyang and Yingzhou.Joseph Needham states, is that a "high-nitrate gunpowder mixture had been reached at last, since nothing less would have burst the iron casing."

Michael Loewe states that borehole sites could reach as deep as 600 m (2000 ft).petroleum in California during the 1860s (i.e. "Kicking Her Down").Hebei had nearby mining shafts which reached depths of 100 m (328 ft) with spacious mining areas; the shafts and rooms were complete with a timber frame, ladders and iron tools.

Hongzhi Emperor (r. 1487–1505) of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644); it also adds that the toothbrush was not mass-produced until 1780, when they were sold by a William Addis of Clerkenwell, London, England.ancient Egypt in the form of a twig that was frayed at the end.

Garden of Strange Things by Liu Jingshu mentioned that a ship could allow water to enter the bottom without sinking, while the Song Dynasty author Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) wrote in his book of 1119 that the hulls of Chinese ships had a bulkhead build; these pieces of literary evidence for bulkhead partitions are confirmed by archaeological evidence of a 24 m (78 ft) long Song Dynasty ship dredged from the waters off the southern coast of China in 1973, the hull of the ship divided into twelve walled compartmental sections built watertight, dated to about 1277.Marco Polo (1254–1324), to Niccolò Da Conti (1395–1469), to Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) commented on bulkhead partitions, which they viewed as an original aspect of Chinese shipbuilding, as Western shipbuilding did not incorporate this hull arrangement until the early 19th century.

Dazu Rock Carvings in Sichuan dated to 1128,Wuwei Bronze Cannon dated to 1227, the Heilongjiang hand cannon dated to 1288, and the Xanadu Gun dated to 1298. However, only the Xanadu gun contains an inscription bearing a date of production, so it is considered the earliest confirmed extant cannon. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7 cm in length and weighs 6.2 kg. The other cannons are dated using contextual evidence.bombard can be found in the Chinese town of Ta-tsu. In 1985, the Canadian historian Robin Yates visited the Buddhist cave temples when he saw a sculpture on the wall depicting a demon holding a hand-held bombard. The muzzle seems to have a blast and flames coming from it which some believe is proof of some type of super gun. Yates examined the cave and believed the drawings dated back to the late 12th century.

pig iron, was developed in China by the early 5th century BC during the Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BC), the oldest specimens found in a tomb of Luhe County in Jiangsu province; despite this, most of the early blast furnaces and cupola furnaces discovered in China date after the state iron monopoly under Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) was established in 117 BC, during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD); Donald Wagner states that a possible reason why no ancient Chinese bloomery process has been discovered thus far is because the iron monopoly, which lasted until the 1st century AD when it was abolished for private entrepreneurship and local administrative use, wiped out any need for continuing the less-efficient bloomery process that continued in use in other parts of the world.malleable iron in the 4th century BC, which enhanced the mechanical properties of cast iron through an annealing process.iron military weapons were made of more costly wrought iron and steel, signifying that "high performance was essential" and preferred for the latter.

Named after a pale-tinted spring green colour, Chinese archaeologist Wang Zhongshu (1982) asserts that shards having this type of ceramic glaze have been recovered from Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 AD) tomb excavations in Zhejiang; he also asserts that this type of ceramic became well known during the Three Kingdoms (220–265).Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127).iron oxide"s transformation from ferric to ferrous iron (Fe2O3 → FeO) during the firing process.Longquan celadon wares, which the archeologist Nigel Wood at the University of Oxford writes were first made during the Northern Song, had bluish, blue-green, and olive green glazes and high silica and alkali contents which resembled later porcelain wares made at Jingdezhen and Dehua rather than stonewares.

Chuiwan, a game similar to the Scottish-derived sport of golf, was first mentioned in China by Song dynasty writer Wei Tai (fl. 1050–1100) in his Dongxuan Records (東軒錄);tennis was for early urban Europeans during the Renaissance (according to Andrew Leibs).Book of Chuiwan, which described the rules, equipment, and playing field of chuiwan, as well as included commentary of those who mastered its tactics.tee of modern golf—had a "base" area where the first of three strokes were played.

Imperial Academy to train potential candidates for office and some offices required its candidates to pass formal written tests before appointment.Sui Dynasty (581–618) that civil service examinations became open to all adult males not belonging to the merchant class (although civil service examinations was a path to social advancement in Imperial Chinese society to candidates regardless of wealth, social status, or family background) and were used as a universal prerequisite for appointments to office, at least in theory.gentry families from throughout the country.European missionaries and diplomats, and encouraged the British East India Company to use a similar method to select prospective employees. Following the initial success in that company, the British government adopted a similar testing system for screening civil servants in 1855.

Joseph Needham speculates that it could have existed beforehand, the first clear written evidence of the fusion of wrought iron and cast iron to make steel comes from the 6th century AD in regards to the Daoist swordsmith Qiwu Huaiwen, who was put in charge of the arsenal of Northern Wei general Gao Huan from 543 to 550 AD.Newly Reorganized Pharmacopoeia of 659 also described this process of mixing and heating wrought iron and cast iron together, stating that the steel product was used to make sickles and Chinese sabers. In regards to the latter text, Su Song (1020–1101) made a similar description and noted the steel"s use for making swords.

charcoal used in the blast and cupola furnaces of the iron industry led to large amounts of deforestation of prime timberland; to avoid excessive deforestation, the Song Dynasty Chinese began using coke made from bituminous coal as fuel for their metallurgic furnaces instead of charcoal derived from wood.

Michael Sullivan writes that "the earliest color printing known in China, and indeed in the whole world, is a two-color frontispiece to a Buddhist sutra scroll, dated 1346".

his empire, China"s first emperor Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC) commissioned the engineer Shi Lu to build a new waterway canal which would pass through a mountain range and connect the Xiang and Lijiang rivers.Lingqu Canal, complete with thirty-six lock gates, and since it closely follows a contour line (i.e. following the contours of the natural saddle in the hills), it is the oldest known contour canal in the world.

decimal position system. Each digit (0-9) appears as a tally of rods with red rods designated as positive numbers and black rods designated as negative numbers.Warring States period ceramics excavated in Dengfeng in Henan. The oldest surviving counting rods are bamboo rods discovered in a Han dynasty tomb at Fenghuangshan in Hubei, which dates to the reign Emperor Wen of Han.Book of Han compiled by Ban Gu from around 60 CE, but there has been speculation regarding textual references as early as the 3rd century BCE. For example, one passage in the shu [calculations] does not use bamboo tallies and bamboo slips."

Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) green-glazed pottery tomb model of a farmyard, complete with a rotary grain mill, a man operating a foot tilt hammer for pounding grain, and to his left a winnowing machine with a crank handle used to operate the fan.bellows, the water well windlass, and other devices.

crossbow bolts dating as early as the mid 5th century BC were found at a State of Chu burial site in Yutaishan, Hubei.Qufu, Shandong, capital of the State of Lu.Hunan dated to the mid 4th century BC.Repeating crossbows, first mentioned in the used in battle dates to the 4th century BC.Terracotta Army in the tomb of Qin Shihuang (r. 221–210 BC) that are similar to specimens from the subsequent Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), while crossbowmen described in the Han Dynasty learned drill formations, some were even mounted as cavalry units, and Han dynasty writers attributed the success of numerous battles against the Xiongnu to massed crossbow fire.

football known as cuju was first mentioned in China by two historical texts; the Sima Qian (145–86 BC).Warring States period (403–221 BC) the people of Linzi city, capital of the State of Qi, enjoyed playing cuju along with partaking in many other pastimes such as cockfighting.cuju was also considered a military training exercise and means for soldiers to keep fit.

Warring States period (403–221 BC),iron ore melted in the blast furnace may have been cast directly into molds, but most, if not all, iron smelted in the blast furnace during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) was remelted in a cupola furnace; it was designed so that a cold blast injected at the bottom traveled through tuyere pipes across the top where the charge (i.e. of charcoal and scrap or pig iron) was dumped, the air becoming a hot blast before reaching the bottom of the furnace where the iron was melted and then drained into appropriate molds for casting.

A giant drawloom for figure weaving, from the Chinese Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia published by Ming dynasty encyclopedist and scientist Song Yingxing in 1637

Hemudu Excavation, wooden tops were excavated. In order to extend the spinning time of the tops, whip were used to spin the top. This released a sound and gradually evolved into the term "Kongzhu" (Chinese: 空竹; pinyin: Kōng zhú; Cao Zhi in the Three Kingdoms period had composed the poem "Rhapsody of Diabolos 《空竹赋》", making it the first record of Diabolo in Chinese history. The authenticity of the poem "Rhapsody of Diabolos 《空竹赋》" however required further research and evidence of proof. By the medieval Tang dynasty, Chinese Diabolo became widespread as a form of toy. The Taiwanese scholar Wu Shengda 吳盛達 however argued that records of Chinese Diabolo only appeared during late Ming dynasty Wanli period, with its details well recorded in the book simplified Chinese: 空钟; traditional Chinese: 空鐘; pinyin: Kōng zhong; Lord Macartney"s ambassadorship, after which examples were brought to Europe,sheng (eventually adapted to the harmonica and accordion).

dominoes were first presented to the imperial court in 1112.Former Events in Wulin (i.e. the capital Hangzhou) written by the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) author Zhou Mi (1232–1298), who listed "pupai" (gambling plaques or dominoes) as well as dice as items sold by peddlers during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song (r. 1162–1189).pupai, since the Ming author Lu Rong (1436–1494) explicitly defined pupai as dominoes (in regards to a story of a suitor who won a maiden"s hand by drawing out four winning pupai from a set).Manual of the Xuanhe Period (1119–1125) written by Qu You (1347–1433).Encyclopedia of a Myriad of Treasures, Zhang Pu (1602–1641) described the game of laying out dominoes as pupai, although the character for pu had changed (yet retained the same pronunciation).Tien Gow, Pai Gow, Che Deng, and others. The thirty-two-piece Chinese domino set (made to represent each possible face of two thrown dice and thus have no blank faces) differs from the twenty-eight-piece domino set found in the Western World during the mid 18th century (in France and Italy).Chinese dominoes developed into the modern game, it is speculated that Italian missionaries in China may have brought and introduced the game to Europe.

dougong is a building bracket which is unique to Chinese architecture. Since at least the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–771 BC), they were placed between the top of a column and a crossbeam to support the concave roofs of beam-in-tier buildings which were archetypal of Chinese architecture.gong) supported by a wooden block (斗, dou) on each side.Dougong were also used for decorative and ceremonial rather than entirely pragmatic purposes of support, such as on solid brick pagodas like the Iron Pagoda built in 1049. The featured illustrations and descriptions of dougong.

percussion drilling for oil and gas originated during the ancient Chinese Han Dynasty in 500 BC, when percussion drilling ("churn drilling") was used to extract natural gas in Sichuan province.Edwin Drake to drill Pennsylvania"s first oil well in 1859, using small steam engines to power the drilling process.

Escapement, hydraulic-powered (use in clock tower): The escapement mechanism was first described for a mechanical washstand by the Greek Philon of Byzantium who also indicated that it was already used for clocks.Yi Xing (683–727) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) for his water-powered celestial globe in the tradition of the Han dynasty polymath and inventor Zhang Heng (78–139), and could be found in later Chinese clockworks such as the clock towers developed by the military engineer Zhang Sixun (fl. late 10th century) and polymath inventor Su Song (1020–1101).striking clock.pendulum resting and releasing its hooks on a small rotating gear wheel, the early Chinese escapement employed the use of gravity and hydraulics.waterwheel (which acted like a gear wheel) would be filled one by one with siphoned water from a clepsydra tank.

Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and the Ming dynasty military strategist and philosopher Liu Bowen (1311–1375) in the mid 14th century described the earliest known exploding cannonballs, which were made of cast iron with a hollow core packed with gunpowder. Jiao and Liu wrote that when fired, they could set enemy camps ablaze. The earliest evidence for exploding cannonballs in Europe date to the 16th century.Huolongjing also specified the use of poison and blinding gunpowder filled into exploding shells; the effects of this chemical warfare was described as such: "Enemy soldiers will get their faces and eyes burnt, and the smoke will attack their noses, mouths, and eyes."

Yezhongji ("Record of Affairs at the Capital Ye of the Later Zhao Dynasty") written by Lu Hui (fl. 350 AD), various mechanical devices are described which were invented by two Later Zhao (319–351) engineers known as Xie Fei, a Palace Officer, and Wei Mengbian, the Director of the Imperial Workshops.millstones placed onto the frame; these were mechanically rotated by the movement of the cart"s terrain wheels in order to grind wheat and other cereal crops.tilt hammers in order to hull rice; again, the device only functioned when the cart was moved forward and the wheels turned.Pompeo Targone.Vittorio Zonca in 1607, and then in a Chinese book of 1627 (concerning European technology) that was compiled and translated by the German Jesuit polymath Johann Schreck (1576–1630) and the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) Chinese author Wang Zheng (王徵 1571–1644), although by then it was considered by the Chinese to be an original Western contraption.

wrought iron produced by excessive injected air in Chinese cupola furnaces, the ancient Chinese also created wrought iron by using the finery forge at least by the 2nd century BC, the earliest specimens of cast and pig iron fined into wrought iron and steel found at the early Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) site at Tieshengguo.Warring States period (403–221 BC), due to the fact that there are wrought iron items from China dating to that period and there is no documented evidence of the bloomery ever being used in China.removing carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation.Shandong tomb mural dated 1st to 2nd century AD, as well as a hint of written evidence in the 4th century AD Daoist text

huǒjiàn (火箭), which literally means fire arrow. In China a "fire arrow" referred to a gunpowder projectile consisting of a bag of incendiary gunpowder attached to the shaft of an arrow from the 9th century onward. Later on solid fuel rockets utilizing gunpowder were used to provide arrows with propulsive force and the term fire arrow became synonymous with rockets in the Chinese language. In other languages such as Sanskrit "fire arrow" (agni astra) underwent a different semantic shift and became synonymous with "cannon."fire lances, the first firearm.

gunpowder blast of flame and shrapnel; its earliest representation comes from a painting found at Dunhuang.siege of De"an (modern Anlu, Hubei Province),siege towers called "sky bridges": "As the sky bridges became stuck fast, more than ten feet from the walls and unable to get any closer, [the defenders] were ready. From below and above the defensive structures they emerged and attacked with fire lances, striking lances, and hooked sickles, each in turn. The people [i.e., the porters] at the base of the sky bridges were repulsed. Pulling their bamboo ropes, they [the porters] ended up drawing the sky bridge back in an anxious and urgent rush, going about fifty paces before stopping."

Lives of Famous Immortals.Southern Song (1127–1279) painting done in 1195 by Song dynasty painter Ma Yuan (c. 1160–1225) called "Angler on a Wintry Lake," showing a man sitting on a small sampan boat while casting out his fishing line.Wu Zhen (1280–1354).Tianzhu lingqian (Holy Lections from Indian Sources), printed between 1208 and 1224, features two different woodblock print illustrations of fishing reels being used.Armenian parchment Gospel of the 13th century shows a reel (though not as clearly depicted as the Chinese ones).Chinese encyclopedia published in 1609, features the next known picture of a fishing reel and vividly shows the windlass pulley of the device.

Byzantine Empire during the 7th century,piston syringes (which had been known since the Han Dynasty) spouting Greek fire which had been imported from China"s maritime trade contacts in the Middle East. It was first used in battle 932 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960), and the earliest illustration is found in the early Song Dynasty military manuscript Pen Huo Qi was ignited by an incendiary gunpowder fuse.

Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty besieged Yangzhou in 1276.Zhejiang.Wu I Thu Phu Thung Chih or Illustrated Military Encyclopedia written in 1791 depicts a signal gun in an illustration.

forensic science book Song Ci in 1247 contains the oldest known case of forensic entomology.sickle; this was a tool used for cutting rice at harvest time, a fact which led them to suspect a fellow peasant worker was involved.blow flies gathered around one sickle and none other, attracted to the scent of traces of blood unseen by the naked eye.

salammoniac, tung oil, chin chih, scallion juice, and yin hsiu is poured into the bomb, coating the pellets. Once the bomb explodes, the resulting shrapnel is capable of piercing the skin and blinding enemy soldiers.

pipe organ employing metal piston bellows had a long history in the Western world, dating back to the Hellenistic period. However, the Western pipe organ did not make use of the reed, which the ancient Chinese mouth organ employed. The latter instrument, called a sheng and made traditionally of bamboo pipes, was first mentioned in the harmonica, harmonium, concertina, accordion, and all other reed organ instruments. A free reed organ was invented in the Arab world in the 13th century, while the German organ builder Heinrich Traxdorf (fl. 15th century) of Nuremberg built one around 1460 AD. It is thought that the classical Chinese sheng travelled west through Russia during the 19th century, as it was described then in Saint Petersburg.

Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576), yet it was known long before him.Joseph Needham writes that the earliest confirmed use of gimbals in Europe is the 9th century recipe book Little Key of Painting and English antiquary and book collector Thomas Phillipps"s Mappae clavicula, which mentioned a vase surrounded by rings which allowed it to be undisturbed when in a rolling motion.George Sarton both write that an Arabic translation—dated to roughly the era of Al-Ma"mun (r. 813–833)—of an ancient Greek work now lost (i.e. Pneumatica) by 3rd-century BC Greek engineer, physicist, and writer Philo of Byzantium (c. 280 – c. 220 BC) contains a description of gimbals used to support an inkpot that could wet a pen on any of its sides, yet Needham suspects Arabic interpolation and doubts total authenticity, while Belgian-born American chemist and historian of science George Sarton asserts that for the most part the Arabic translation is faithful to Philo"s lost original, hence Philo should be credited with the invention of the gimbal.Ding Huan (丁緩) — who also created a rotary fan and zoetrope lamp—invented a "Perfume Burner for use among Cushions", or "Bedclothes Censer".incense burner had a series of metal rings which could be moved in any direction while the burner in the middle remained constantly level.Sima Xiangru (179–117 BC) that this device existed in the 2nd century BC (i.e., "the metal rings burning perfume").Liang Dynasty (502–557) there is mention of gimbals used in hinges for doors and windows, while an unnamed artisan presented a warming stove to Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690–705) in 692 which employed gimbals to keep it constantly balanced.

pinyin: wéiqí in Chinese): Although ancient Chinese legend (perhaps contrived during the Han Dynasty) has it that the mythological ruler Yao came down to earth from the Heavens around 2200 BC carrying with him a go board and stone player"s pieces, it is known from existing literature that the go board game existed since at least the 10th century BC during the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BC) and was even mentioned in writing by ancient Chinese philosophers Confucius (551–479 BC) and Mencius (371–289 BC), although the latter two had a slightly negative opinion of it.

carp (collectively known as Asian carps) were domesticated and have been reared as food fish for thousands of years. Some of these normally gray or silver species have a tendency to produce red, orange or yellow color mutations; this was first recorded in the Jin Dynasty (266–420).Tang Dynasty (618–907), it was popular to raise carp in ornamental ponds and watergardens. A natural genetic mutation produced gold (actually yellowish orange) rather than silver coloration. People began to breed the gold variety instead of the silver variety, keeping them in ponds or other bodies of water.

Heilongjiang which dates to about 1288 is a little over 0.3 m (1 ft) in length and weighs 3.6 kg (8 lbs). It has a small touch hole for ignition and an even bore except for the bulbous enlargement around the explosion chamber. It was excavated with a bronze pan, mirror and vase.

incendiary grenades were used by the Eastern Roman Empire, incorporating Greek fire.Zhen Tian Lei were created when Chinese soldiers packed gunpowder into ceramic or metal containers and thrown at the enemy. Further descriptions and illustrations of early Chinese hand grenades are provided in the Huolongjing.

Sichuan, dating to 1128, that portrays a figure carrying a vase-shaped bombard, firing flames and a cannonball.handgun is the Heilongjiang hand cannon from the Chinese Heilongjiang excavation, dated to 1288.gunpowder was first developed. They were hand cannons (although they were not necessarily fired from the hand, but rather at the end of a handle). By the 14th century, they existed in Europe as well. The first handheld firearms that might better be called "pistols" were made as early as the 15th century, but their creator is unknown.

Spring and Autumn period (770–481 BCE) through the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), bamboo or wooden slips were bound and used to write texts on.paper and silk as handscrolls became more common.Three Kingdoms (220–280), the handscroll became a standard form for mounting artwork.

bamboo strips and silk banners in ancient China.Mawangdui dating back to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE).Tang Dynasty (618–907), the aesthetic and structural objectives for hanging scrolls were summarized, which are still followed to this day.

flight has existed since 400 BC in the form of the bamboo-copter, an ancient Chinese toy.Ge Hong"s book the Leonardo da Vinci designed a machine known as an "aerial screw" with a rotor based on a water screw. The Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov developed a rotor based on the Chinese toy. The French naturalist Christian de Launoy constructed his rotor out of turkey feathers.Sir George Cayley, inspired by the Chinese top in his childhood, created multiple vertical flight machines with rotors made of tin sheets.Alphonse Pénaud would later develop coaxial rotor model helicopter toys in 1870, powered by rubber bands. One of these toys, given as a gift by their father, would inspire the American inventors the Wright brothers to pursue the dream of modern flight.

joss paper printed to resemble fake legal tender bank notes. The notes are not an official form of recognized currency or legal tender since their sole intended purpose is to be offered as burnt offerings to the deceased as a superstitious solution to resolve their ancestors financial problems. This custom has been practiced by the modern Chinese and across East Asia since the late 19th century.

ancient breast harness was the horse collar. The horse collar was depicted in a Northern Wei (386–534) mural at Dunhuang, China, dated 477–499; the latter artwork does not feature the essential collar cushion behind the cross bar, though, while a later Tang Dynasty (618–907) mural of about 851 accurately displays the cushioned collar behind the cross bar.Sui Dynasty (581–618) accurately depicted the horse collar as it is seen today, yet the illustration shows its use on a camel instead of a horse.

carbonaceous pigment materials originating from India, Indian ink first appeared in China; some scholars say it was made as far back as the 3rd millennium BC, while others state it was perhaps not invented until the Wei Dynasty (220–265 AD).

mortar used in Chinese calligraphy for grinding and mixing ink. Other than stone, inkstones are also manufactured from clay, bronze, iron, and porcelain. The device evolved from a rubbing tool used for rubbing dyes dating around 6000 to 7000 years ago.

develop vaccinations for smallpox until 1796, historical Chinese records show that Chinese physicians have been inoculating against the same disease hundreds of years earlier.Joseph Needham states that a case of inoculation for smallpox may have existed in the late 10th century during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), yet they rely on a book Zhongdou xinfa (種痘心法) written in 1808 by Zhu Yiliang for this evidence.Douzhen xinfa (痘疹心法) of 1549.Yuyi cao (寓意草), or Notes on My Judgment published in 1643, and Zhang Yan in his Zhongdou xinshu (種痘新書), or New book on smallpox inoculation in 1741. As written by Yu Tianchi in his Shadou jijie (痧痘集解) of 1727, which was based on Wang Zhangren"s Douzhen jinjing lu (痘疹金鏡錄) of 1579, the technique of inoculation to avoid smallpox was not widespread in China until the reign of the Longqing Emperor (r. 1567 – 1572) during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

made of jade existed in China during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). Confirming ancient records about Han royalty and nobility buried in jade burial suits, archaeologists discovered in June 1968 the tombs and jade burial suits of Prince Liu Sheng (d. 113 BC) and his wife Dou Wan in Hebei province.Emperor Wen of Han (r. 180–157 BC), with the earliest being found in the Shizishan site. A total of 22 Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) and 27 Eastern Han (25–220 AD) complete and partial jade burial suits were uncovered between 1954 and 1996. They are found mainly in Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Henan, as well as at Yangjiawan, Dongyuan, Guangzhou, Mawangdui, Mianyang and Shizhaishan. The jade burial suit gradually disappeared when it was forbidden in 222 by Emperor Wen of Wei.

Lu Ban (fl. 5th century BC) from the State of Lu created a wooden bird that remained flying in the air for three days, essentially a kite; there is written evidence that kites were used as rescue signals when the city of Nanjing was besieged by Hou Jing (died 552) during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang (r. 502–549), while similar accounts of kites used for military signalling are found in the Tang (618–907) and Jin (1115–1234) dynasties; kite flying as a pastime can be seen in painted murals of Dunhuang dating to the Northern Wei (386–534) period, while descriptions of flying kites as a pastime have been found in Song (960–1279) and Ming (1368–1644) texts.

An illustration of a handheld portable multiple rocket launcher as depicted in the 11th century book Song Dynasty. The launcher is constructed using basketry.

The puddling process of smelting iron ore to make wrought iron from pig iron, the right half of the illustration (not shown) displays men working a blast furnace, Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia published in 1637, written by Song Yingxing (1587–1666).

The British scientist, historian, and sinologist Joseph Needham writes that the development of the raised-relief map in China may have been influenced by Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) incense burners and jars such as this, showing artificial mountains as a lid decoration; these were often used to depict the mythical Penglai Island.

Depiction of rocket arrows, from the huo jian), the middle is an "dragon shaped arrow frame" (long xing jian jia), and the left is a "complete fire arrow" (huo jian quan shi).

A depiction of the 13th Century "long serpent" rocket launcher. The holes in the frame are designed to keep the rockets separate, from the 1510 edition of Wujing Zongyao.

A Song Dynasty painting on silk of two Chinese cargo ships accompanied by a smaller boat; notice the large stern-mounted rudder on the ship shown in the foreground

huo pao) to kill Mongol soldiers invading Guangxi in 1277.Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and Liu Bowen (1311–1375) during the late Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) and early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).cast iron, and their fuses ignited by a mechanism tripped by enemy movement; although Jiao and Liu did not describe this trip mechanism in full detail, a later text of 1606 revealed that enemy movement released a pin that allowed hidden underground weights to fall and spin a chord around an axle that rotated a spinning wheel acting as a flint to spark a train of fuses.

leeward drift caused by the force of wind while sailing, the leeboard was invented; it was a board lowered onto the side of the ship opposite to the direction of the wind, helping the ship to stay upright and afloat even if the hull was breached. British writers Paul Johnstone and Sean McGrail state that an odd-looking second paddle on a bronze drum of the Dong Son culture (centered in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam) may depict a leeboard in use as early as 300 BC.Borobudur monument built during the Sailendra dynasty of Central Java (Indonesia).in the West by the Dutch, during the 15th to 16th centuries (possibly used on early Dutch cogs, or perhaps influenced by a Chinese origin).

liubo for the most part remains an enigma for modern scholars still deciphering exactly how it was played; its association with both gambling and divination make it a unique game.liubo game boards are found in the Zhongshan Tomb 3 at Shijiazhuang, Hebei.Chu Tomb 197 and 314 at Jiangling, Hubei.Liubo game boards have been found in several Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) tombs; 1 wooden board at Jiangdu in Jiangsu; 1 wooden board in Tomb 8 at Fenghuangshan in Hubei; 1 lacquered set of liubo in Tomb 3 at Mawangdui Han tombs site in Hunan; 1 lacquered board in Tomb 1 at Dafentou in Yunnan; 1 bronze board at Xilin in Guangxi.a Western Han crown prince and Liu Xian (劉賢), where the latter was killed in the scuffle which (in part) prompted his father Liu Pi (劉濞), the King of Wu, to rebel against central Han authority in the Rebellion of the Seven States (154 BC).Michael Loewe asserts that the set pieces of liubo were symbolic of the forces of the Chinese Five Elements,

seed drill invented by the Chinese agronomist Zhao Guo, a Han official in charge of agricultural production during the reign of Han Wudi in the Han dynasty. According to the records of Political Commentator by the Eastern Han dynasty writer Cui Shi, the Louche consisted of three feet and thus was called three-legged Lou. The three legs had three ditch diggers under it used for sowing. The Louche was animal powered and was pulled by an ox and the leg of the Louche directly dug a ditch in the flattened soil, sowed the seeds, covered the seeds, and pressed the land flat at the same time. The machine was known for its utility and efficiency for serving several agricultural uses at the same time, while saving time and effort.

Record of Ancient Mirrors described the method of crafting solid bronze mirrors with decorations, written characters, or patterns on the reverse side that could cast these in a reflection on a nearby surface as light struck the front, polished side of the mirror; due to this seemingly transparent effect, they were called "light-penetration mirrors" by the Chinese. Unfortunately, this Tang era book was lost over the centuries, but magic mirrors were described in the Shen Kuo (1031–1095), who owned three of them as a family heirloom. Perplexed as to how solid metal could be transparent, Shen guessed that some sort of quenching technique was used to produce tiny wrinkles on the face of the mirror too small to be observed by the eye. Although his explanation of different cooling rates was incorrect, he was right to suggest the surface contained minute variations which the naked eye could not detect; these mirrors also had no transparent quality at all, as discovered by British scientist and mathematician William Bragg in 1932.

gambling game of mahjong (Traditional Chinese: 麻將; Pinyin: májiàng), which employs a set of over a hundred tiles, was first invented in 1846 by Zhen Yumen, a Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) diplomatic official from Ningbo.card game of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) which used thirty-two wood or ivory pieces in the shape of cards.madiao (馬吊) during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), which had four suits of cards instead of the three found in modern mahjong.

Northern Qi (550–577) court ladies as they desperately looked for materials to light fires for cooking and heating as enemy troops of Northern Zhou (557–581) and the Chen Dynasty (557–589) besieged their city from outside. Early matches in China were designed to be lit by an existing flame and carried to light another fire. They were pinewood sticks impregnated with sulfur and needed only a slight touch from a flame to light. This was written in the Records of the Unworldly and Strange by Tao Gu in 950 (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period).

Mechanical theater (driven by carriage wheels): The inventors of the field mill mentioned above, Xie Fei and Wei Mengbian of the Later Zhao (319–351 AD), also invented an intricate mechanical theater mounted on a carriage, its figures operated by motive power (i.e. simply advancing the carriage forward).Jie emperor Shi Hu (334–349).golden Buddha statue with a Daoist statue continually rubbing his front with his mechanical hand.incense into a censer.

Li Jie (1065–1110) is the oldest known Chinese architectural treatise that has survived fully intact.cai fen system (材份制) of eight standard dimensions for module components of timber architecture and structural carpentry.Yingzao Fashi, with grade I being the largest and grade VIII the smallest, were used to determine the ultimate proportions and scale of a building as a whole, as all timber hall types—palaces, mansions, ordinary houses, and pavilions—were hierarchically categorized along the lines of which cai fen grade was employed.I through V, while mansion type buildings never used components larger than grade III and no less than grade VI.VIII is represented by one cai; one cai is equal to the modern equivalent of 15 cm (5.9 in), while one cai is also divided into fifteen fen (hence the title of this modular system).

rockets of the 13th century were first developed in Europe (i.e. "ignis volantis in aere" in the work of Marcus Graecus around 1232, although Needham and Davis assert it was most likely a fire lance), the Middle East (i.e. "sahm al-Khitāi" or "arrows of China" as referred to by Hasan al-Rhammāh in 1280) or China (i.e. "di lao shu" or "ground rat" mentioned in 1264 or the "chong" mortar used by the armies of the Song Dynasty and invading Mongols during the 1270s), during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) the term "fire arrow" once implied to mean incendiary arrows during the Tang Dynasty was then used to describe the true rocket, producing a headache, as Needham says, for historians;Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and the Song dynasty Chinese philosopher and politician Liu Bowen (1311–1375) during the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) described several types of rockets,booster rockets that, when about to burn out of use, ignited a swarm of smaller rocket arrows fired from the front end of the missile shaped as a dragon"s mouth.

Sichuan province dating to the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), scenes of borehole drilling for mining projects are shown.derricks lifting liquid brine through bamboo pipes to the surface so that the brine could be distilled in evaporation pans over the heat of furnaces and produce salt.carburetor chambers and siphoned some of the gas off with exhaust pipes.

Northern Wei Dynasty, the Chinese geographer, politician, and writer Li Daoyuan introduced the process of refining oil intro various lubricants in his famous work Northern Song Dynasty, a workshop called the "Fierce Oil Workshop", was established in the city of Kaifeng to produce refined oil for the Song military as a weapon. The troops would then fill the iron cans with refined oil and threw them toward the enemy troops, causing a fire – effectively the world"s first "fire bomb" The workshop was one of the world"s earliest oil refining factories where thousands of people worked to produce Chinese oil powered weaponry.

imperial China, alongside paper napkins. Paper cups were known as chih pei and were used for the serving of tea.chih pha, accompanied tea cups and were folded into squares. Textual evidence of paper cups and napkins appears in a description of the possessions of the Yu family, from the city of Hangzhou.

Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) observed that the spaces between the leaves of trees acted as tiny pinholes which cast the image of a partial solar eclipse onto the ground.Chinese philosopher Mozi (c. 470 BC – c. 391 BC)—founder of Mohism during the establishment of the Hundred Schools of Thought—lived just before the time of Aristotle and it was in his Mojing (perhaps compiled by his disciples) that a pinhole camera was described.Mojing stated that the "collecting place" (pinhole) was an empty hole "like the sun and moon depicted on the imperial flags," where an image could be inverted at an intersecting point which "affects the size of the image."Mojing seems to be in line with the Epicurean theory of light traveling into the eye (and not vice versa like in Pythagoreanism),Mojing states that the reflected light shining forth from an "illuminated person" becomes inverted when passing through the pinhole, i.e. "The bottom part of the man becomes the top part (of the image) and the top part of the man becomes the bottom part (of the image)."Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039) wrote of his experimentation with camera obscura, which was followed by Song dynasty polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095), the latter who alluded that the Tang Dynasty (618–907) writer Duan Chengshi (died 863)—in his Chinese pagodas.

Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Su E (fl. 880), described the Wei clan (family of Princess Tongchang"s husband) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) enjoying the "leaf game" in 868.Yezi Gexi was a book on the card came which was allegedly written by a Tang woman and commented on by Chinese scholars in subsequent dynasties.Notes After Retirement, the Song Dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that playing card games existed since the mid Tang Dynasty and associated this invention with the simultaneous evolution of the common Chinese writing medium from paper rolls to sheets of paper that could be printed.novels such as the woodblock printing before the innovation of the early modern printing press by German inventor, printer, publisher and blacksmith Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–1468).

Zhou Dynasty Chinese text of the Book of Odes) records that King Wen of Zhou was the first to create a pontoon bridge in the 11th century BC. However, the British scientist, sinologist and historian Joseph Needham has pointed out that in all likely scenarios, the temporary pontoon bridge was invented during the 9th or 8th century BC in China, as this part was perhaps a later addition to the book (considering how the book had been edited up until the Han Dynasty, 202 BC–220 AD). Although earlier temporary pontoon bridges had been made in China, the first secure and permanent ones (and linked with iron chains) in China came first during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC–207 BC). The later Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) Chinese statesman Cao Cheng once wrote a description of the early pontoon bridges in China.Yellow River. There was also the rebellion of Gongsun Shu in 33 AD, where a large pontoon bridge with fortified posts was constructed across the Yangtze River, eventually broken through with ramming ships by official Han troops under Commander Cen Peng. During the late Eastern Han into the Three Kingdoms period, during the Battle of Chibi in 208 AD, the Prime Minister Cao Cao once linked the majority of his fleet together with iron chains, which proved to be a fatal mistake once he was thwarted with a fire attack by Sun Quan"s fleet. The armies of Emperor Taizu of Song had a large pontoon bridge built across the Yangtze River in 974 in order to secure supply lines during the Song Dynasty"s conquest of the Southern Tang.

Although glazed ceramics existed beforehand, the author and historian Samuel Adrian M Adshead writes that the earliest type of vitrified, translucent ceramics that could be classified as true porcelain was not made until the Tang Dynasty (618–907).

Ptolemaic Greeks and the Romans.flash lock existed beforehand, the two-gate pound lock was invented in 984 by an official of Huainan and engineer named Qiao Weiyo, during the early Song Dynasty (960–1279), so that ships could safely travel along canal waterways having gated and segmented chambers where water levels could be regulated.Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in his

Roman Egypt, especially the weight-driven puppet theater of Heron of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD), are well known and discussed by historians such as Beck, Prou, and de Rochas d"Aiglun.Zhang Heng (78–139) wrote of plays with artificial fish and dragons, while a 6th-century text Xijing Zaji states that when Liu Bang (reigned as Emperor Gaozu of Han from 202–195 BC) came upon the treasury of the deceased Qin Shihuang (r. 221–210) in 206 BC, he found an entire mechanical orchestra of 1 m (3 ft) tall puppets dressed in silk and playing mouth organs, all powered by pulling ropes and blowing into tubes.Ma Jun (fl. 220–265)—already associated with the differential gear system of the south-pointing chariot—invented a mechanical theater powered by a rotating wooden waterwheel for the entertainment of Emperor Ming"s (r. 226–239 AD) court.trip hammer and millstone), while others watched cockfighting, all moving simultaneously.

Sima Qian, 91 BC) about Qin Shi Huang"s (r. 221–210 BC) tomb prove correct (if it is excavated).Ma Yuan (14 BC – 49 AD) created a raised-relief map in 32 AD made out of rice, a type of map described in detail during the Tang Dynasty (618–907) by Jiang Fang in his Essay on the Art of Constructing Mountains with Rice (c. 845).Liu Song Dynasty (420–479) created a 0.93 m2 (10 ft2) wooden raised-relief map of the empire (showing mountains and rivers) which could be taken apart and pieced together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The Song dynasty polymath Shen Kuo also created his own raised-relief map using sawdust, wood, beeswax, and wheat paste.

merchant middle class often had little time to eat at home, so they ventured out to eat at a variety of establishments such as temples, taverns, tea houses, food stalls, and restaurants which provided business for nearby brothels, singing-girl houses, and drama theaters; this along with traveling foreigners and Chinese who migrated to urban centers from regions with different cooking styles encouraged a demand for a variety of flavors served at urban restaurants, giving rise to the menu.

zhuanluntang, have been documented in ancient China, and its invention is credited to Fu Xi in 544.Song Dynasty under the reign of Emperor Taizu, who ordered the mass printing of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka scriptures.

Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen during the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).crow), packed with gunpowder, and made of bamboo laths forming a long basketwork frame that was reinforced with glued paper.

Jiao Yu shows the oldest known multistage rocket with rocket boosters. The Huolongjing describes and illustrates the oldest known multistage rocket.booster rockets that would automatically ignite a number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon"s head with an open mouth, before eventually burning out.YingJi-62 ASCM.Joseph Needham points out that the written material and depicted illustration of this rocket come from the oldest stratum of the Huolongjing, which can be dated roughly from 1300–1350 AD.fire arrows invented during the medieval Song dynasty more than 1000 years ago, using gunpowder as solid rocket propellants. Gunpowder was packed into a bamboo case cylinder and an opening was created on the cylinders other end. As the gunpowder was ignited, it began to burn rapidly and created large amounts of gas that would rush out to create thrust.

air conditioning, the Han Dynasty craftsman and mechanical engineer Ding Huan (fl. 180 AD) invented a manually operated rotary fan with seven wheels that measured 3 m (10 ft) in diameter; in the 8th century, during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the Chinese applied hydraulic power to rotate the fan wheels for air conditioning, while the rotary fan became even more common during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).Georg Agricola (1494–1555).

ancient Egyptian use of stern-mounted rudders can be traced back to the 6th dynasty (2350–2200 BC).block and tackle (versus European pintle-and-gudgeon invented by c. 1180 AD).Joseph Needham, Richard Lefebvre des Noëttes, K.S. Tom, Chung Chee Kit, S.A.M. Adshead, Paul Johnstone and Sean McGrail state that a steering oar is not a rudder; the steering oar has the capacity to interfere with handling of the sails (limiting any potential for long ocean-going voyages) while it was fit more for small vessels on narrow, rapid-water transport; the rudder did not disturb the handling of the sails, took less energy to operate by its helmsman, was better fit for larger vessels on ocean-going travel, and first appeared in China.Mediterranean world (specifically in regards to the Phoenicians, 1550–300 BC): "A single sail tends to turn a vessel in an upwind or downwind direction, and rudder action is required to steer a straight course. A steering oar was used at this time because the rudder had not yet been invented. With a single sail, a frequent movement of the steering oar was required to steer a straight course; this slowed down the vessel because a steering oar (or rudder) course correction acts like a break."oars or a steering oar, comes from several ceramic models of Chinese ships made during both the Western and Eastern eras of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD).

A depiction demonstrating the use of the Chinese stinkpot shown in the Traité sur les feux d"artifice pour le spectacle et pour la guerre by French pyrotechnician Jean-Charles Perrinet d"Orval, 1745

Zhang Heng (78–139) of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) invented the first seismometer in 132, a large metal urn-shaped instrument which employed either a suspended pendulum or inverted pendulum acting on inertia (i.e. ground tremors from earthquakes) to dislodge a metal ball by a lever trip device; this ball would fall out of dragon-shaped metal mouth into the corresponding metal toad mouth indicating the exact cardinal direction of where a distant earthquake had occurred in order for the state to send swift aid and relief to the affected regions; several subsequent recreations of his device were employed by Chinese states up until the Tang Dynasty (618–907), when use of the device fell into obscurity, a fact noted even by the writer Zhou Mi around 1290, during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368).

Wei Dynasty mechanical engineer and statesman Ma Jun (fl. 220–265) that the south-pointing chariot was first invented by the mythological Yellow Emperor are dubious, his south-pointing chariot was successfully designed and tested in 255 AD with many later models recreated in subsequent dynasties; this device was a wheeled vehicle with differential gears that ensured a mounted wooden figurine would always point in the southern direction no matter how the vehicle turned, in essence a non-magnetic compass.Zu Chongzhi (429–500) during the Liu Song Dynasty (420–479).Emperor Tenji (661–672) on two different occasions (658 and 666) by the Tang Dynasty (618–907) Chinese Buddhist monks Zhi Yu and Zhi You.Song Shi (compiled 1345); for example, it revealed the number of gear teeth on each mechanical gear wheel, the diameter of each gear wheel, and how these gear wheels were properly positioned.

archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old.East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC.Falcata were produced in the Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steel was used by the Roman military.cast iron from the late Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), produced steel by the 2nd century BC through a process of decarburization, i.e. using bellows to pump large amounts of oxygen on to molten cast iron.Liu An (179–122 BC). For steel, they used both quenching (i.e. rapid cooling) and tempering (i.e. slow cooling) methods of heat treatment. Much later, the American inventor William Kelly (1811–1888) brought four Chinese metallurgists to Eddyville, Kentucky in 1845, whose expertise in steelmaking influenced his ideas about air injection to reduce carbon content of iron; his invention anticipated the Bessemer process of English inventor Henry Bessemer (1813–1898).

Sir William Robert Kennedy recorded the use of the stinkpot in 1856 during the Second Opium War in his book Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor – Fifty Years in the Royal Navy. These incendiary weapons were wrapped in calico bags and were then hoisted in a basket to the truck of the mast.

woks and the tendency to slice food thinly indicate that the technique was likely used for cooking.Ming Dynasty that stir frying was popularized as primary cooking method of Chinese cuisine.Chinese immigrants, and has been used for non-Asian cuisines.

Jin Dynasty (266–420) Chinese tomb figurine dated 302 AD, yet this was a single stirrup and was perhaps used only for initially mounting the horse.Byzantine Empire, where both the stirrup and Celtic horseshoe were adopted.

dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. The game is reputed to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty,tang, referring to the medieval Chinese Tang Dynasty, and the Greek word gramma, a synonym of "graph".

baldness and goiter.Gaspard Adolphe Chatin (1813–1901) linked goiter with the lack of iodine in soil and water; iodine was discovered in the thyroid gland in 1896 by German chemist Eugen Baumann, while thyroid extract was used to treat patients in 1890. The Tang Dynasty (618–907) physician Zhen Quan (d. 643 AD), in his Old and New Tried and Tested Prescriptions, stated that the thyroid glands taken from gelded rams were used to treat patients with goiter; the thyroid hormones could be swallowed in pill form (the body of the pill made from crushed jujube pulp) or as a solid thyroid gland with the fat taken off.Pharmacopoeia of the Heavenly Husbandman asserted that iodine-rich sargassum was used to treat goiter by the 1st century BC (Ge Hong, 284–364, also suggested using a tincture derived from sargassum seaweed in about 340 AD),Roger of Palermo in his Practica Chirurgiae of 1180 AD.

Warring States period (403–221 BC); to operate the trebuchet, a team of men pulled on ropes attached to the butt of the shorter segment of a long wooden beam separated by a rotating axle fixed to a base framework, allowing the longer segment of the beam to lunge forward and use its sling to hurl a missile; by the 9th century a hybrid of the traction and counterweight trebuchet, employing manpower and a pivoting weight, was used in the Middle East, Mediterranean Basin, and Northern Europe; by the 12th century, the full-fledged co