Chinese Discoveries

By Ana Maria Bushaj
  • 2700 BCE

    Tea

    Tea
    The tea was made by letting tea leaves steep in boiling water, it was drunk mostly as medicine.
  • 1300 BCE

    Rockets

    Rockets
    Rockets were powered by
    a black powder made of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur.
  • 850 BCE

    The Development of Gunpowder

    The Development of Gunpowder
    The Chinese who first made gunpowder were alchemists, people who practiced a blend of science and magic known as alchemy. Alchemists experimented with mixtures of natural ingredients, trying to find a substance that might allow people to live forever.
  • 800 BCE

    Game Cards

    Game Cards
    Famous artists drew the designs that appeared on the backs of the cards. Europeans were introduced to card games by the late 1300s.
  • 700 BCE

    Paper money

    Paper money
    Like game cards, paper money was printed with wood blocks. By 1107, Song printers were using multiple wood blocks to print each bill.
  • 700 BCE

    Mechanical Clock

    Mechanical Clock
    The Chinese devised a wheel that made one complete turn every 24 hours. Dripping water made the wheel turn. Every quarter hour, drums would beat; and every hour, a bell would chime.
  • 200 BCE

    Steel

    Steel
    The earliest Chinese steel was made from cast iron. The Chinese were the first to learn how to make cast iron by melting and molding iron ore.
  • 200 BCE

    Compass

    Compass
    The first Chinese compasses were pieces of a magnetic mineral
    called lodestone.
  • 100 BCE

    Porcelain

    Porcelain
    Porcelain is made by combining clay with the minerals quartz and feldspar. The mixture is baked in a kiln, or pottery oven, at very high temperatures.