chinese inventions

1. Chinese
Inventions

2. What did the Chinese invent?

3. The Chinese invented all of this…

4. Did you know?
• Chopsticks were developed about
5,000 years ago in China.
• The abacus was invented 600 years ago

5. • The Chinese language has no alphabet and contains thousands of characters.
• Chinese children learn about 2,000 characters by the time they are ten.
When they leave college they will know between 4,000 and 5,000 characters

6. • Ice cream was invented in
China around 2000BC when
the Chinese packed a soft
milk and rice mixture in the
snow.
• China is the homeland of tea

7. • Paper was first invented in
China in 105 AD. It was a
closely guarded secret and
didn’t reach Europe until
the 8th century.
• China makes nearly 40% of the
world’s mobile phones and
laptops and nearly 50% of its
cameras and shoes

8. Sericulture (Silk Production)
• Legend says that around 2700 BCE, the
Empress Hsi Ling Shi had a silkworm cocoon
fall into her hot tea. As she watched the
stands of fiber unravel, she had a vision of
how to harvest and weave the threads into
silk.

9. Decimal System Ms Sewell will be happy!
• An example of how the Chinese used the
decimal system appears in a transcription
from the 13th century BCE, in which '547 days'
is written 'Five hundred plus four decades plus
seven of days'.

10. The Seismograph
• Earthquakes had long plagued China. Chang
Heng, a scientist, mathematician and inventor
designed the first seismograph around 132 CE,
a bronze vessel with an inverted weighted bob
in the center which would release a small
bronze ball through one of eight grooved
openings when a tremor caused the bob to
sway.

11. Replica of Didong Yi, the world's first
seismograph.

12. Paper
• The invention of paper from hemp fibers dates
to the second century BCE. The oldest
surviving piece of paper was found in a tomb
near Xian and dates from between the years
140 and 87 BCE.

13. Lacquer ware
• Lacquer dates from the 13th century BCE. Lacquer is
a plastic varnish that has great powers of
preservation, strength and durability (like plastic).
The Chinese obtained lacquer by tapping lacquer
trees and used it for furniture, screens, coating
cooking utensils and making weapon accessories.

14. Rockets and multi-staged rockets
• Invented around 1150 CE when a bamboo stick was
attached to a cluster of fireworks. The stick was fitted
with an arrowhead (sometimes coated with poison)
and a balancing weight and was lit from a frame
shaped like a dragon or other type of launcher box.

15. Horse collar or Trace
• By the fourth century BCE, the Chinese had
invented the trace harness. This harness
worked by means of a breast strap which
allowed a horse to exert itself and bear
pressure on the chest bone. Prior to this
invention, horses were made to wear throat-
and-girth harnesses, which
severely choked the animal as it tried to pull.

17. The Abacus
• By the 14th century the abacus was in
common use.
• Columns of vertical wood rods hold counting
beads. The counting beads are moved over to
represent the units, tens, hundreds,
thousands and so on.

18. What is this?

19. Compass
• The spoon or ladle is of magnetic lodestone, and the plate is
of bronze. The circular center represents Heaven, and the
square plate represents Earth. The handle of the spoon points
south. The spoon is a symbolic representation of the Great
Bear. The plate bears Chinese characters which denote the
eight main directions of north, northeast, east, southeast,
south, southwest, west, northwest, and symbols from the I
Ching oracle books which were correlated with directions.
Separately marked are the finer gradations of twenty-four
compass points, and along the outermost edge are the
twenty-eight lunar mansions.

20. Wheelbarrow

21. Barbed wire being transported by a traditional Chinese wheelbarrow near
Shanghai in 1938. This type, with the large central wheel, can be pulled from
the front as well as pushed from behind, and can carry more than two tons-
The Genius of China

22. Kites
•

26. Activity…
• Choose a Chinese invention to investigate
• Complete the worksheet

27. • The giant panda of China is one
of the rarest animals in the
world