In , they even banned the sale of saltpeter to foreigners. Despite all their efforts, knowledge of this new substance was carried along the Silk Road to India, the Middle East, and Europe. By , recipes for gunpowder had been published in the west. Gunpowder is just another example of how when a new technology is created, the rest of the world must either adapt or become obsolete. This is extremely relevant when it comes to weapons and tools of warfare.
If one civilization has better weapons, they will be able to conquer everyone else unless other civilizations learn the technology. This is a constant cycle as civilizations create new technology while also trying to keep up with the new technology of others. Ross, Cody.
Szczepanski, Kallie. China was the first country in the world to make proper paper. A further development of paper is credited to Cai Lun of the Eastern Han He used plant fiber such as tree bark, bits of rope, rags and worn-out fishing nets as raw materials.
In , Cai presented the first batch of paper made under his supervision to the Han emperor, who was so delighted that he named the material "Marquis Cai's paper". Eastern Han Dynasty paper found in Wuwei, Gansu, in carried words which were still clearly decipherable. Thin, soft, and with a smooth finish and tight texture, this paper is the most refined and oldest paper discovered to date.
Before paper was invented, the ancient Chinese carved characters on pottery, animal bones and stones, cast them on bronzes, or wrote them on bamboo or wooden strips and silk fabric.
These materials, however, were either too heavy or two expensive for widespread use. The invention and use of paper brought about a revolution in writing materials, paving the way for the invention of printing technology in the years to come. The invention of gunpowder was no doubt one of the most significant achievements of the Middle Ages in China.
The correct prescription for making gunpowder with nitre, sulphur and carbon was probably discovered in the ninth century. In fact, in his book, Ge Hong in the third century records the procedures for making a kind of mixture that could be ignited.
After the Tang Dynasty , things took a much faster course as gunpowder was already used in simple hand-grenades which were thrown by a catapult. In , Li Gang, a local official, recorded how he ordered the defenders of the city of Kaifeng to "fire cannons" at the invading Nuzhen tribal people, inflicting heavy casualties on the invaders.
The first prescription for gunpowder appeared in , much earlier than the earliest gunpowder-making instructions recorded in Europe. Before paper was invented, Qin Shihuang, the first emperor in Chinese history, had to go over kilos of official documents written on bamboo or wooden strips.
Before the invention of printing, dissemination of knowledge depended either on word of mouth or handwritten copies of manuscripts. Both took time and were liable to error. Beginning years ago in the Western Han Dynasty B. This led in the Sui Dynasty to the practice of engraving writing or pictures on a wooden board, smearing it with ink and then printing on pieces of paper page-by-page.
This became known as block printing. The first book with a verifiable date of printing appeared in China in the year , or nearly years before that happened in Europe. Yet block printing had its drawbacks. All the boards became useless after the printing was done and a single mistake in carving could ruin a whole block. In of the Song Dynasty , a man named Bi Sheng carved individual characters on identical pieces of fine clay which he hardened by a slow baking process, resulting in pieces of movable type.
When the printing was finished, the pieces of type were put away for future use. This technology then spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Europe.
Later, German Johann Gutenberg invented movable type made of metal in
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