china

pottery

6000 BCE

objects made of clay and hardened by heat: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain, particularly those made in China.

silk

3000 BCE

The Chinese learned how to make silk from the cocoons of silkworms. They managed to keep the process for making silk a secret for hundreds of years.

compass

207 BCE

The Ancient Chinese compass was made from iron oxide, a mineral ore. Iron oxide is also known as lodestone and magneta. The most popular style of the first Chinese compass used a lodestone (which automatically points to the south) and a bronze plate. The lodestone was carved into the shape of a spoon.

paper

100 BCE

Before its invention, bones, tortoise shells, and bamboo slips were all used as writing surfaces, but as Chinese civilization developed they proved themselves unsuitable because of their bulk and weight. Hemp fiber and silk were used to make paper but the quality was far from satisfactory.

blast furnace

5 BCE

A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals and its alloys, generally iron, but also others such as lead or copper.

gunpowder

850

When Chinese alchemists invented gunpowder it was a mistake. The alchemists were trying to find a potion for immortality and instead they wound up making an explosion. So the opposite effect came out of the original Idea. Gunpowder consists of potassium nitrate, common charcoal, and sulfur.

Printing

868

Wood block printing was invented in AD 868 and then moveable type around 200 years later.

coffin

1380

A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation. The word took two different paths, cofin in Old French originally meaning basket,

Inoculation

1796

The terms inoculation, vaccination and immunization are often used synonymously to refer to artificial induction of immunity against various infectious diseases.