Chinese people have developed creative thinking and a glorious tradition of invention since ancient times. Such as dragons and phoenixes. Phoenix is a magical animal made up of the head of a chicken and the body and feathers of a peacock. Dragons are more creative. Dragons are magical animals made up of horse's head, deer's body, snake's body, eagle's claw, forest's body and fish's tail. Furthermore, Joseph Needham, a famous British scientist, made an in-depth study of the scientific and technological achievements in ancient China and wrote a world-famous masterpiece, Science and Culture in China (the Chinese translation is entitled History of Science and Technology in China). In 1986, under the guidance of Dr. Needham, Robert Temple published the book "China ―― the Country of Discovery and Invention", which introduced China's 1 "world firsts" in simple and popular words. The following are introduced to you in the order of invention.
1. Drum:
It is said that there were artificial drums in China in 35 BC. In 3 BC, drums were made by covering a frame or container with animal skins. By 1 BC, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia had made a round drum with pictures painted on it. Later, there were small bronze drums and big bronze drums. The bronze drum used by cavalry in the 15th century was adopted by orchestras in the 17th century. In 1692, Purcell used it in the music for "The Fairy Queen". This kind of drum is now called timpani, and there was a bass drum in the 19th century. Drums can make the beat clear, rough and powerful. China invented the timpani in the 2nd century BC.
2. Binary system:
It is said that Fuxi invented the binary system in 3 BC. Zhouyi is one of the five classics, and it is one of the oldest classics in China. According to legend, The Book of Changes was written by Fuxi, Zhou Wenwang and Zhou Gong about 3 BC, and was revised by Kong Qiu to become The Book of Changes. Modern electronic computers use binary instead of decimal. Who invented the binary system? "Yi Shu" in Zhouyi uses binary system. In other words, Fuxi invented binary, and Fuxi is Shennong. Legend has it that Shennong tasted a hundred herbs to get grains, and China had primitive agriculture. Fuxi has made great progress to our society! The Xiannong altar in Beijing, China, was built to pay homage to Shennong (Fuxi), where the Chinese people expressed their admiration for him.
3. Rope:
In 28 BC, China people had mastered the technology of creating hemp rope. Our people began to use hemp fiber to make ropes. By the beginning of AD, hemp fiber had become the main rope-making material in most parts of the world. In 1775, the British inventor Matthew invented the rope making machine, ending the era of manual rope making. Since 195, artificial fibers have been used to make ropes. Manila rope with a diameter of about 2 mm will break when it is pulled by 5512 kg, while nylon rope with the same thickness can withstand 13227 kg.
4. Compass:
It is said that Huangdi Xuanyuan in China invented the compass in 27 BC. Huangdi used a compass to tell the direction in the fog and defeated Chiyou. According to historical records, China people used compasses as early as the Warring States Period. Everything is done wrong in the 3rd century BC said that "Sina" (compass) had been used in the Warring States period. In Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo recorded this in more detail in Mengxi Bi Tan. In 19, China and Arab navigators began to install compasses on ships. As a navigation tool. In Europe, it was only around the 11th century that a magnetic needle floating on water was used to make a compass. Around 125, in the Mediterranean region, the magnetic system of the compass has been mounted on a moderate card and kept balanced by a central rotating shaft.
In the 16th century, the compass was set on a flat frame, which played a role in ships. In the 19th century, the compass of iron ships should be fitted with a piece of flinders iron to correct the errors caused by the ship's magnetic force. Gyro compass for ships and airplanes made in the 2th century. According to the principle that the stable attitude of the rotating vertex is related to the stars, the gyro compass has two advantages: it does not deflect because it is close to the metal, and it points to the true north instead of the magnetic north. In 198, Germany made the first practical instrument of this kind in the world. The best compass is made by American Spree. In 191, it was successfully tested on the ship "Delaware" and was quickly adopted by the US Navy. In a word, the compass is one of China's four great inventions, which later spread all over the world and made great contributions to the development of the global navigation industry.
5. Fish culture method:
In 25 BC, people in China already knew how to raise fish. At that time, our people could hatch fish eggs artificially and raise them for food. From 196 to 197, fish such as frog fish were cultured artificially in Europe and America. Western European countries such as Britain now produce about 1, tons of freshwater fish from fish farms every year.
6. Equatorial astronomical instrument:
In 24 BC, China people invented the equatorial astronomical instrument.
7. Decimal counting system:
China people invented the decimal counting system in the 14th century BC. It is very important in modern science. The earliest evidence that Europeans formally adopted it was found in a Spanish manuscript in 976 AD, and China adopted it as early as the Shang Dynasty in the 14th century BC. In the Oracle Bone Inscriptions unearthed in the 13th century BC, there is an example of China people describing "547 days" in decimal system.
8. Printing:
In 1324 BC, people in China were able to carve seals and watermark documents with ink. Printing is the first media in the world, and only with it can information be disseminated. Printing is one of the four great inventions in China. We in China have used seals since ancient times to engrave people's names or official titles. The seal was originally the title of the official title, and it was used to affix the document again in 1324 BC. At first, ink was used, and it was not until the fifth and sixth centuries that red inkpad was used. China seals are mostly carved with soapstone, jade, bamboo and even ivory. China people believe that documents, letters and bills based on seals are more reliable after being signed. Among the printed books now, the oldest is the Diamond Sutra, which was printed by China King, and now it has become an orphan. In 868, people in China invented block printing. The Diamond Sutra is a relief printing. It is a 5.25-meter scroll printed with a number of blocks with a length of 91 cm and a width of 36 cm. Later, it fell into the hands of the British and is now hidden in the British Museum in London.
In the 14s, Bi Sheng, a lettering worker in China, invented movable-type printing in Beijing over the years. The clay hexahedral movable-type die was heated to harden and arranged on the turntable according to rhyme. When printing, the movable type is spread on an iron plate with adhesives such as turpentine and wax, tied tightly with an iron frame around it, and heated on a fire to melt the adhesives. After cooling, the movable type sticks to the iron plate. After printing, bake the hot iron plate and take out the movable type for later use. In 143, Li Taizong of North Korea founded the earliest metal casting factory (at that time, North Korea also used square characters), and after 3 years, North Korea created a set of pinyin letters instead of square characters with reference to Sanskrit in ancient India. Now there are 4 letters in Korean, and only a few letters are needed to spell all the words. In 1438, Genfertier (German), who lived in Gutenberg, Mainz, Germany, created a set of molds for pouring metal letters. Carve a punch from hard metal, then press the punch on soft copper with a hammer to make a female die, which is arranged on a frame for printing. By the 15th century, lead-tin alloys had probably been used. In 1451, he printed the first book printed with movable type in Europe ―― donato Slading Grammar. Printing of the Latin Bible began in about 1453. His printing machine was modified with an ordinary screw press. Put one page as a printing plate on the printing table, brush the ink, spread the paper, and press it with the platen installed under the screw. Only one page can be arranged a day, and only about 16 pages can be printed per hour.
In p>1457, Foster and Schoerford invented multicolor printing and printed the first two-color book-Latin hymns. In 1461, Jester of Banburg combined woodblock printing with movable type printing to print the first illustrated book-German fable, with 11 illustrations. In 147, the Frenchman Jean Sen designed the first batch of Roman movable type in Venice. In 1477, Torremi drew the Map of the World, which was printed by gravure printing and printed with 26 copperplate plates. It is not easy to imitate, and the ink on paper is slightly swollen, with many features and easy to distinguish between authenticity and falsehood, so it is still used to print banknotes, stamps and securities. In 151, Italian Griffaud wrote a set of italics; In 1561, he reduced these words to print pocket edition's books. (Western italics are mainly used to emphasize sentences. ) In 162, Birkino of the Netherlands invented the convenient printing method, which can print 15 copies per hour. In 1642, Segen in Germany invented the engraving gravure printing method, which was most suitable for printing pictures. The first painting was a portrait of the Countess Eliza in Germany.
in p>117, China people also invented color printing. More than 6 years later, in 1719, the color printing machine designed by LeBron in Germany was patented. The first book printed was Harmony of Oil Painting Colors. In 1727, the British Scottish goldsmith Gert invented the casting cliche method. In 1775, Dido, a Frenchman, formulated a unit for measuring the size of movable type. In 1798, nuffield invented lithography, which is most suitable for printing illustrations. In 1875, the offset printing method was first used in Britain to print the image on the blanket, and then it was officially printed on the materials needed for elasticity. In 18, Steiner, England made the first iron frame printing machine to replace the wooden printing machine. It can print 25 sheets per hour. In 181, a German working in London, Koenig obtained the patent of steam printing machine (mechanized manual printing machine), which can print 4 pages per hour. In 1812, the Germans Koenig and Bauer designed the roller rolling printing machine. The Times sold this machine, which can print 11 copies per hour. Later, Koenig also designed a printing machine that can print two sides at a time.
in p>1839, Britain, the United States and Russia respectively invented electroforming plates. Use electroformed metal plate instead of wood engraving plate. In 1845, Hoao, new york, obtained the patent for the first practical rotary printing machine. The Philadelphia Chronicle bought this machine. In 1848, Apps and Cowper, engineers of The Times of London, designed a rotary printing machine, which can print 8, sheets per hour. In 1861, Hoao, USA, made a curved plate with paper pattern, and from then on, there was a completely circular printing layout. In 1852, Talbot, the pioneer of British photography technology, discovered the principle of steel line letterpress printing. In 188, he first used this method to copy a photo in new york Pictorial with the title "A slum scene in new york". In 1886, German Morgan Soller worked in the United States and invented the Zeno typesetting machine with high-speed automatic typesetting, which was used in The New York Times. Two years later, it was officially put into production, with about 6 typesetting modules per hour, four times the speed of the most skilled workers. In 1887, Langston, a British civil servant, invented the excellent Mono casting and arranging machine, which was put into production in 1897. Prior to this, people knew the intaglio printing method of carving copper before 1477; In 1895, Austrian klick invented the gravure method; In 1839, Xu Buyuo invented the phototypesetting machine in America. From then on, the printer did not want metal movable type, and used flat printing instead of traditional letterpress printing. This method is to project letters onto photographic paper one after another, then develop them and paste them on a page of samples. This assembled plate was transferred to the photosensitive film of the metal plate with a camera, and after acid etching, the printing plate had the performance of the lithographic printing plate invented by nuffield in 1798. Ink is only attached to the plate where there are graphics. Now, photographic typesetting has replaced most traditional typesetting methods.
In p>1965, after the invention of the electrophotographic typesetter in Germany, the era of computer-controlled typesetting began. Advanced printing plants can design the whole page layout on the computer screen. After the designer arranges the page layout properly, he uses a computer memory device to store all the contents, including words, titles, picture positions and so on. Then, a computer-controlled laser scans the photographic paper, prints the image of the whole layout, and then prints it in a printing plate by photography. This is called laser phototypesetting. Nowadays, many large newspapers and periodicals in the world use advanced printing methods. For example, China's Science and Technology Daily, China TV News and Beijing Evening News all adopt this advanced printing technology.
9. Lacquer-the world's first plastic:
Lacquer was invented and used in China in the 13th century BC at the latest. The tomb of "Fu Hao" excavated in Anyang City, Henan Province in 1976 (buried in the 13th century) is proved by her painted coffin. Needham said, "Lacquer is probably the oldest industrial plastic known to mankind." In ancient China, the organization and management of the paint industry were well organized, with private paint workshops and national production centers. There is a painted wooden wine glass in the Oriental Art Museum in Paris. The inscription carved on the glass not only indicates that the glass was made in the fourth year of AD, but also bears the names of seven craftsmen who participated in the production and five officials of the production center. This wooden wine glass shows China people's views on manufacturing technology two thousand years ago. On the other hand, this cup also shows that the production at that time probably used the process flow like the modern industrial production assembly line. As early as the second century BC, people in China had discovered the important chemical properties of lacquer, discovered the method to make it deteriorate through the evaporation process of lacquer, and found that by putting a few crab shells in the lacquer, the lacquer would remain liquid and would not dry. Huai Nan Zi in 12 BC and Li Shi in the 12th century A.D. both mentioned the special function of crab shell to keep lacquer liquid. Modern scientists have confirmed that there are chemical components in the nail shell that inhibit the activities of some enzymes, one of which is the enzyme that hardens paint. Lacquer can be kept in liquid state for a long time through chemical action, which makes this biochemical process in China have an enduring industrial prototype model.
1. Bronze mirror:
About the 12th century BC, people in China invented the bronze mirror. China people also invented the magic mirror in the 5th century. William Boulaygue, a British crystallographer, systematically expounded the theory of magic mirror in 1932, about 1,5 years later than China. The magic mirror is one of the strangest objects in the world. What's so wonderful about the magic mirror? On the reverse side of the magic mirror, there is a bronze pattern ―― image or text, or both. One side reflecting light is convex, which is made of polished bronze and used as a mirror. Under most lighting conditions, this kind of mirror looks the same as other ordinary mirrors. However, when the mirror is used in bright sunlight, its reflective side can be "seen through". By reflecting sunlight on a dark wall with a mirror, people can see the patterns or characters on the mirror from the images cast on the wall. Solid bronze products become transparent, which makes people feel mysterious. This phenomenon makes China people give the magic mirror the name of transparent mirror. Bronze is opaque, but it actually makes people feel transparent. Why? This mystery has been discussed by Chinese and foreign scholars for hundreds of years, and both China scientist Shen Huo and foreign scientist Sir William Boulaygue have expressed their opinions. When Sir William Boulaygue discovered this mystery in 1932, he said, "It is the amplification of reflection that makes the pattern clearly appear." Needham correctly called all this "the first step on the road to mastering the fine structure of metal expression."
11. Umbrella:
In 11 BC, people in China had already used umbrellas, and at that time they had already used umbrellas to indicate their identity. Bamboo or sandalwood for umbrella ribs