Ancient China: Inventions A-C

The earliest discovered cannon dates back to 1282 during the time of the Mongol rule of China, yet the earliest documented use of cannon like artillery in a Chinese battle is by the Song in 1132, and the earliest gun discovered dates to 1288.

As far back as the Shang Dynasty the (1600-1100BC), Chinese people began to learn to use iron. At that time, meteoritic iron were used for the blades of luxury weapons, cast into bronze handles which were sometimes inlaid with silver or precious stones.

Cast iron became an important part of Chinese life and public works. Even before cast iron became available in Europe, Chinese production was reaching levels of over 150,000 tons a year.

The Chinese abacus, called Suanpan in Chinese, is an ancient calculating method with a history of over 2,500 years. Suanpan has two decks and more than seven rods.

The abacus was first mentioned (possibly improved upon, but not invented) by the mathematician Xu Yueh (徐岳) at the end of Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D).

The Chinese developed the abacus, a counting device, around 100 AD. By the 1300’s it was perfected and given the form it still has today.
The instrument consisted of a rectangular wooden frame with parallel rods. Each rod holds beads as counters.

Recognized in Chinese as Si Nan, this early version of today’s compass came in the form of a two-part instrument, the first one a metal spoon made of magnetic loadstone, the second one a square bronze plate, which featured, in Chinese characters, the main directions of North, South, East, West, etc., symbols from the I-Ching oracle books, and the finer markings of 24 compass points with the 28 lunar mansions along the outer edge.