Chinese Inventions
The ancient Chinese were an innovative people who were able to independently develop the ideas for many of the things we take for granted today. Even though these ideas originated in the East they have proven valuable throughout the world, disseminated by such explorers as Marco Polo and others who realized the importance of the things they had seen. Francis Bacon viewed many of these Chinese inventions as crucial to the development and transformation of European society during the 16th and 17th centuries (Selin, 1997, p.261). These inventions changed the world as we know it and not always for the better. However, the myriad inventions continue to influence the way that people all over the world live their lives every day.
Overview of Chinese Inventions
The ancient Chinese have been credited with inventions ranging from the mundane to supreme technological innovations in many different fields. For example, in the field of agriculture, the Chinese are credited with inventing the system of row cultivation. Instead of scattering seeds randomly on the ground as the Europeans did, the Chinese carefully planted individual seeds in a row. To achieve this, they used a seed drill, which was developed to plant the seeds directly into the ground. The Chinese were also the first to make silk from the cocoon of the silkworm moth and they eventually exported westward, leading to the creation of the "Silk Road," a passage for trade with the west (Krebs & Krebs, 2003, p.100).
They were also very interested in developing apparatuses for potential flight and gave us many of the early templates for eventual air travel. Their earliest flight-related invention was the kite, which was designed about 2000 years ago by a carpenter using bamboo pieces. Though initially used by the military to deliver gunpowder bombs to their enemies, the kite eventually became the entertainment vehicle it is today (Deng, 2011, p.122). They have also been credited with inventing the first hot air balloon and a toy helicopter rotor (Ong, 2011, p.170).
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