Download DOCUMENT A Gunpowder Image source: fourriverscharter.org

DOCUMENT A
Gunpowder
Image source: fourriverscharter.org Reading adapted "Chinese gunpowder." World History: Ancient & Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO
Gunpowder was first invented, documented, and used in ancient China. It was said that Emperor Wudi of
the Han dynasty financed research done by the alchemists (experimenters) on the mystery of everlasting life.
Chinese alchemists invented gunpowder. During the Tang dynasty in the eighth century, they combined
sulphur and saltpeter with charcoal to create an explosive called huoyao, or gunpowder, which was used as a
gas/vapor to kill insects or to treat skin diseases. The first reference to gunpowder appears in a Chinese text
written in 1044, referring to a variety of mixtures that included oils, garlic, & honey.
When people discovered how gunpowder could be used as a weapon, the Chinese began to apply
gunpowder to warfare. They started experimenting with gunpowder-filled tubes that could launch themselves
just by the power produced from the escaping gas. As a result, the first rockets were born. The Chinese
produced a variety of gunpowder weapons, including flamethrowers, rockets, bombs, and land mines, before
inventing guns as a projectile weapon. (Fireworks were created, as well.) In China, explosive grenades,
bombs, and rockets had been used extensively by the year 1000.
By the 13th century, Chinese military forces used gunpowder weapons against the Mongols when they
tried to invade across the Great Wall on the northern borders of China. When Mongols conquered China and
founded the Yuan dynasty, they used the gunpowder-based weapons technology in their invasion of Japan,
Korea, and other countries.
The formula for making gunpowder was not common information, and only a few special weapon
makers knew how to make it. This hazardous and highly explosive weapon, however, spread to Europe
through the Silk Road.
In the 10th century, Arab scientists began to study and carry out experiments with gunpowder and its
uses in warfare. When Europeans invaded Arabian countries during the crusade movement from the 11th to
the 13th centuries, the Arabs used their newfound weapon against the Christian troops, sparking both fear and
interest from the crusaders. The technology would later be adapted by Europeans for use in their military.
DOCUMENT B
Printing
Image source:
fourriverscharter.org
Printing is the technique of applying ink to a solid
surface and then pressing it to paper (or a similar surface),
leaving an image on the paper. Printing can be used to
transfer either text or images to paper. Though people began
printing with blocks of wood nearly 2,000 years ago, it was not
until the advent of movable metal type in the 15th century that
printing became a practical means of mass-producing books.
Printing developed in China during the Han Dynasty around the second century CE. The Chinese of
the time already had paper and ink. They began printing by applying wet paper to Buddhist inscriptions
(religious writings) carved on marble pillars and then rubbing ink over the paper; the result was an image of the
inscription on the paper. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the Chinese expanded on that technique by carving
designs in wood plates in order to transfer the texts of prayers onto paper.
The first-known book is the Diamond Sutra, a collection of 130 volumes of Chinese classics printed in
932 at the order of the Chinese minister Fong Tao.
The problem with woodblock printing was that a carved block could only print one page; every new
page of text required a new block to be carved. In the 1040s, a Chinese alchemist (researcher) named Pi
Sheng invented a kind of reusable printing block where one could attach characters to iron plates with a
mixture of wax, resin, and paper ash and then remove them again to print something else. In 1313, a Chinese
magistrate (judge) had thousands of characters carved so he could print a book on the history of technology,
but for the most part, the Chinese did not put movable type to great use.
The use of movable type, called typography, did spread to other places in Asia. The Uighurs, nomadic
people who lived on the borders of Mongolia and Turkistan, used carved typefaces in the early 1300s. Korea,
which uses a different system of writing than China, found movable type very useful. In 1403, King Htai Tjong
ordered a set of 100,000 pieces of type to be cast in bronze. Korea had nine other sets of movable type in
different fonts by 1516.
Reading adapted from "Printing." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO
DOCUMENT C
Paper
Image source: worldcoil.com
Paper began in China. Chinese
sold it to traders, who took it
east through Central Asia along
the Silk Road, and all of the
Islamic world bought it. In 751,
Muslim soldiers captured
Chinese prisoners near
Samarkand (a city in
Uzbekistan) and they gave up
the secret knowledge of
papermaking. Over the next 500
years, paper mills spread from
Iraq to Spain.
Paper arrived in Europe during the 12th century, carried by traders who dealt with Muslims and entering
the continent through ports in Italy. Europeans gradually figured out how to create paper, either by reverseengineering existing samples of paper or possibly by using knowledge brought from the East by returning
crusaders. Medieval scribes wrote their books on parchment made from the skins of calves and sheep. It was
more durable than paper, but it cost a lot when many copies were made. Paper made mass production of
books easier for the first time.
In the 13th century, some enterprising souls began adapting (adjusting) wood-block print technology,
imported from China by Marco Polo and other travelers, to printing European books. This process was faster
than hand-copying and had the advantage of allowing multiple copies of a text to be made, but it still left much
to be desired. Every page had to be carved from a different block of wood, and the blocks themselves did not
last very long.
That situation suddenly changed in the mid-1400s with the invention of a modern-style printing
press by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany. His metalworking skills allowed him to create a set of movable type
cast in metal, a huge improvement over the Chinese technique of carving each letter in wood. After much
experimentation with metals for casting type, Gutenberg developed an effective alloy of 5% tin, 12% antimony,
and 83% lead that is still used in casting print today. He could cast several copies of each letter, and they
lasted a much longer time.
Reading adapted from "Printing." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO
DOCUMENT D
Smelting and Mining Image source: kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com
Smelting is the process by which a metal is
obtained, either as the element or as a simple
compound, from its ore (rock) by heating
beyond the melting point, ordinarily in the
presence of oxidizing agents. China mastered
bronze smelting and casting early in its history
and this paved the way for the development of
an iron industry that came under state control
as early as 117 BCE. Innovations increased
production so that by 806 CE China produced
some 13,500 tons a year. This figure continued
to increase due to innovations such as the open hearth furnace, an ancestor of modern smelting processes.
When massive production of metal put a strain on local resources, China turned to pit coal and
discovered that by preheating the coal to drive off impurities they could achieve even higher temperatures. The
improved smelting processes used water wheels similar to those used on farms to raise temperature.
Mining techniques also improved to support the growing iron and steel industries. Pumps used in
agriculture could also be used to pump water out of shaft mines, while iron tools and the wheelbarrow made
removing and transporting the ore more efficient. The components of gunpowder were adjusted to make a
more explosive product that was used in mining for blasting. The Chinese not only used pit and shaft mining
but also developed deep-well salt mining using steel drills and pumps.
Reading adapted from "Ancient Chinese technology." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO
DOCUMENT E
Irrigation and Agricultural Tools
Image source: ancientchinelife.com
Rice farming required irrigation, as did farming in
more arid (dry) regions. Machines to move water
from one level to another for irrigation would later
find uses in mining and hydro-engineering. The
first irrigation systems were made of pumps in an
inclined trough (trench) with the lower end placed
in the water and the higher end placed where the
water was needed. A mechanism moved a chain
or series of closely fitting wooden paddles up the
trough, pulling the water along with them. At the
upper end the paddles passed over a wheel,
dumping the water into a ditch or container, and
then the paddles continued down the underside of the trough to repeat the process.
This mechanism was later used to harness the power of flowing water for driving other machinery.
Specialized tools for particular jobs were also invented including, in the Tang dynasty, a harrow and special
plow for use in the wet-rice fields.
Sharper and more efficient (well-organized) cast iron agricultural tools developed as early as the fifth
century BCE but were not widespread until the Han dynasty. By China's medieval period the earlier simple iron
plows had developed into pointed iron plows with sideboards and adjustments that optimized their efficiency in
different soil conditions. These new plows were especially important for expanding agriculture into China's
northern border regions.
Better plows needed more power, and new techniques were developed for using oxen and horses to
increase their ability to work. With more land under cultivation, the old method of planting seeds was no longer
efficient. By the beginning of the first millennium, tools for planting were more advanced. Crops planted in rows
were easier to hoe and to irrigate. Irrigation technology was used on a larger scale to build a system of canals
that crisscrossed China and made shipping raw materials and finished goods more efficient and less costly.
Reading adapted from "Ancient Chinese technology." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO
DOCUMENT F
Compass
Image source: fourriverscharter.org
The compass began with the Chinese discovery of
magnetism. Their earliest compass was a piece of
lodestone, a naturally occurring magnetic iron ore
(magnetite). They learned to rub an iron needle on
lodestone to magnetize it and then either hang the needle
from a strand of silk or put it through a straw or a bit of
wood in a bowl of water. Free-floating, the needle would
swing to a north-south position. This basic compass almost
certainly made its way from China to Europe via the Silk
Road, perhaps because of its usefulness in travel or because it may also have had astrological purposes.
This compass was not completely useful since its accuracy depended on keeping the bowl of water
steady. The next development of a true compass is credited to the sailors of the Italian coast. The compass in
use was described as a simple instrument in a box. By the end of the century, the compass was used routinely
on boats/ships.
The medieval compass was a circular card marked with 32 directional points. The card was placed
below a free-swinging magnetized needle attached to a dry pivot and housed in a wooden box. The compass
rose that points to north, south, east, and west was developed by the sailors of Amalfi. Europe had not yet
adopted the 360-degree directional convention.
Navigators knew the needle pointed to the north magnetic pole, not to true north, and made
adjustments for that fact. Use of the compass became common first in the Mediterranean Sea, which in many
places was too deep for sailors to determine their position by sounding, the traditional method of determining
the water's depth. The compass was less used in the shallower northern waters, such as the Baltic Sea and
the North Sea, where sounding continued to be the main navigational tool.
Reading adapted from "Medieval navigation devices." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO