Chinese innovations

By julianna.jd12
  • 2737 BCE

    Tea production

    Tea production
    Tea was actually started mostly for medical purposes.Then in the Tang Dynasty was the time that most people would drink because it tasted good. The monks would drink the tea for the caffeine so that they could meditate for long hours and stay awake.
  • 2696 BCE

    Silk

    Silk
    The Idea first came to Leizu, the wife of the yellow emperor when she was having tea in her gardens when a moth cocoon fell into her tea and it unraveled in her tea. When baby worms from moths spin their cocoons they steamed the cocoons until the moth dies. They are then rinsed in hot water to loosen the threads. It is woven into cloth then pounded to make it softer.
  • 6

    Papermaking

    Papermaking
    Early paper was made from the bark of the mulberry tree. The fibers from the bark were broken and then pounded into a sheet. Later the Chinese people discovered that if they added hemp rags and old fish nets it would make higher quality paper.
  • 6

    Repeating Crossbow

    Repeating Crossbow
    Most bows and crossbows would only shoot one bolt or arrow while the repeating crossbow had a chamber that would hold about 12 bolts. There was a handle that the men would hold and another that they would push forward and pull back to shoot.
  • 110

    Compass

    Compass
    The Compass that was built in ancient china was made from Iron oxide, and a mineral ore. When it was made the most popular way was lodestone that was shaped into a spoon and placed on a flat bronze plate. The handle of the spoon would point south.
  • 132

    Earthquake Detector

    Earthquake Detector
    Since the chinese at that time did not know the reason for earthquakes they thought is was a disturbance with yin and yang. Zhang cheng made the first made the first earthquake detector. The seismoscope was a giant bronze vessel and it was about 6 feet in diameter.
  • 581

    Porcelain

    Porcelain
    581-618
    Porcelain was most commonly used for plates, teacups, and beautiful statues.It would be made into whatever the maker wanted then it would be baked in a kiln with a temperature of 1260 degrees or higher depending on the size. They would then use glazes or paints that ranges in color.
  • 723

    Mechanical Clock

    Mechanical Clock
    The first mechanical clock was made by a monk and mathematician I-Hsing. He called it “ "Water Driven Spherical Birds-Eye-View Map of The Heavens" The bronze and Iron mechanisms started to break and corrode and in the cold weather the water would freeze.