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Ancient Egyptian Inventions
http://ftp.aa.edu/lydon/egypt/matton1egypt/index.htm
The Egyptians were great inventors. The made many objects that we still use today. They
made such objects like the shadoof, locks, paper, plows, medicine, and eye make-up. They
were very skilled to have made any of these at all.
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The shadoof (or shaduf) was a very useful device that the Egyptians built to help them
bring their water from the Nile River to their crops.
 It was operated by hand and was used to lift water from the river onto land in
buckets.
 It has a long pole and there are two objects at each end of it.
o On one side, there is a bucket.
o On the other, there is a weight.
 The Egyptians would lower the bucket into a water source, and allowed the water to
flow into the bucket. Then they would lift it, and swing the bucket over to the
irrigation canals, causing the weight to lift it back up so they could retrieve it
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Paper was another remarkable invention the Egyptians came up with.
 Their paper was made out of papyrus, a plant that was very abundant in the Nile
River region.
 First they had to slice the core of the stalk into very fine pieces.
 These pieces get submerged in water to remove sugar.
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Then the strips are pounded to drain the water.
The strips are then lay side by side and are weaved into each other. The end result
is papyrus paper. In fact, the English word “paper” is derived from the word
papyrus.
www.charleslocksmith.com/ Egyptian%20Lock.jpg
Locks were another making of the Egyptians. These were made to prevent robberies.
 They made a wooden crossbar that was almost entirely enclosed except for some
space for the key and the pins.
 They dropped these pins into cavities, which locked the door.
 To unlock it, they slid the key into the opening, which pushed the pins out of the
way, enabling the door to open.
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An invention that changed the way the Egyptians lived was the first ox-drawn plow. This
made farming much easier and changed the way farming was done through-out history.
 Inventing this useful device eliminated the long hours of work needed to plow a
field.
 Using the power of oxen was a great technological advancement in the world of
Egypt. They attached ropes from their plows onto the oxen, usually their horns.
This greatly helped Egyptian agriculture.
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One invention still used daily by most of the people of the world is the clock. The
Egyptians invented two types of clocks, sun clocks and water clocks.
 Sun clocks were formed by means of the construction of obelisks, tapered
long monuments.
o The clock worked much like a sundial, by watching the moving
shadows throughout the day.
o By doing this, the Egyptians were able to divide the day into morning,
afternoon, and night.
o This invention also led to the discovery of the longest and shortest
years, because when seen at noon, depending on the time of year, the
shadow would be longer, or shorter.
 Water clocks were some of the earliest clocks used, but didn’t require the
observation of celestial bodies.
o The earliest one was found in the tomb of the pharaoh Amenhotep I.
o Water Clocks were like pots made of stones, with long slanting sides
that allowed water to drip down at a constant rate through a small
hole in the bottom.