Chinese Discoveries & Inventions

GAME CARDS AND PAPER MONEY

1300 BCE

Game cards were invented in China in about the 9th century. Printers used
woodblock printing to make the cards from thick paper. Famous artists drew the designs that appeared on the backs
of the cards. Europeans were introduced to card games by the late 1300s. Today, card games are played throughout
the world.
Paper money was invented by the Chinese in the late 8th or early 9th century.

GUNPOWDER

850 BCE

Accidentally discovered by alchemists working with saltpeter.

BOATS

400 BCE

Within China, people often traveled by boat on rivers or
across lakes. An innovation of a vessel called a paddlewheel boat made this type of travel must faster.
Have you ever paddled a canoe or other small boat? As you push your paddle through the water, the boat moves
forward. In the 5th century, the Chinese adapted this idea by arranging a series of paddles in a wheel. People walked
on a tredmill to turn the paddlewheel, which in turn moved through the water, moving the boat forward.

TEA

270 BCE

For several thousands years, tea --made by letting tea leaves steep in boiling water --was drunk mostly as medicine.

COMPASS

200 BCE

The Chinese developed the first
compass as early as the 3rd century B.C.E. The first
Chinese compasses were pieces of a magnetic mineral
called lodestone.

STEEL

200 BCE

The Chinese first made steel, a very useful metal, before 200 B.C.E. Steel is made
from iron, but it is less brittle than iron and easier to bend into different shapes.
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. Later they learned that blowing air into molten, or melted, cast iron causes a chemical
reaction that creates steel. Steel is a great deal stronger than iron.

Printing/Paper

140 BCE

In about the 7th century,
the Chinese invented a technique called woodblock
printing. The printer first drew characters (symbols) on
paper. He then glued the paper to a wooden block. When
the glue was dry, the printer carved out the wood around
the characters, leaving the characters raised on the wood.

ROCKETS

130 BCE

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

PORCELAIN

10 BCE

Another Chinese invention is a type of fine pottery called porcelain. Some
historians think that the Chinese produced the first porcelain as early as the 1st century
C.E.
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. The resulting pottery is
white, hard, and waterproof. However, light can pass through it, so that despite its
sturdiness it looks quite delicate and beautiful.