四大发明英语简介！

the four great inventions 四大发明the compass 指南针diagram of a ming dynasty mariner's compassmain article: compassthe earliest reference to magnet**m in chinese literature ** found in a 4th century bc book called book of the devil valley master (鬼谷子): "the lodestone makes iron come or it attracts it."the earliest reference to a magnetic device used as a "direction finder" ** in a song dynasty book dated to ad 1040-44. here there ** a description of an iron "south-pointing f**h" floating in a bowl of water, aligning itself to the south. the device ** recommended as a means of orientation "in the obscurity of the night." however, the first suspended magnetic needle compass was written of by shen kuo in h** book of ad 1088.for most of chinese h**tory, the compass that remained in use was in the form of a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water. according to needham, the chinese in the song dynasty and continuing yuan dynasty did make use of a dry compass, although th** type never became as widely used in china as the wet compass.the dry compass used in china was a dry suspension compass, a wooden frame crafted in the shape of a turtle hung upside down by a board, with the loadstone sealed in by wax, and if rotated, the needle at the tail would always point in the northern cardinal direction. although the 14th century european compass-card in box frame and dry pivot needle was adopted in china after its use was taken by japanese pirates in the 16th century (who had in turn learned of it from europeans), the chinese design of the suspended dry compass pers**ted in use well into the 18th century.gunpowder **handgun from the yuan dynasty, circa 1300s.main article: h**tory of gunpowderthe prevailing academic consensus ** that gunpowder was d**covered in the 9th century by chinese alchem**ts searching for an elixir of immortality. by the time the song dynasty treat**e, wujing zongyao (武经总), was written by zeng gongliang and yang weide in ad 1044, the various chinese formulas for gunpowder held levels of nitrate in the range of 27% to 50%. by the end of the 12th century, chinese formulas of gunpowder had a level of nitrate capable of bursting through cast iron metal containers, in the form of the earliest hollow, gunpowder-filled grenade bombs.in ad 1280, the bomb store of the large gunpowder arsenal at weiyang accidentally caught fire, which produced such a massive explosion that a team of chinese inspectors at the site a week later deduced that some 100 guards had been killed instantly, with wooden beams and pillars blown sky high and landing at a d**tance of over 10 li (~2 mi. or ~3.2 km) away from the explosion.by the time of jiao yu and h** huolongjing in the mid 14th century, the explosive potential of gunpowder was perfected, as the level of nitrate in gunpowder formulas had r**en to a range of 12% to 91%, with at least 6 different formulas in use that are considered to h**e maximum explosive potential for gunpowder. by that time, the chinese had d**covered how to create explosive cannonballs by packing their hollow shells with th** nitrate-enhanced gunpowder.**making 造纸术hemp wrapping **, china, circa 100 bcmain article: **makingfurther **rmation: science and technology of the han dynasty**making has traditionally been traced to china about ad 105, when cai lun, an official attached to the imperial court during the han dynasty (202 bc-ad 220), created a sheet of ** using mulberry and other bast fibres along with f**hnets, old rags, and hemp waste. however a recent archaeological d**covery has been reported from near dunhuang of ** with writing on it dating to 8 bc.while ** used for wrapping and padding was used in china since the 2nd century bc, ** used as a writing medium only became widespread by the 3rd century. by the 6th century in china, sheets of ** were beginning to be used for toilet ** as well. during the tang dynasty (ad 618–907) ** was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the fl**or of tea. the song dynasty (ad 960–1279) that followed was the first ** to **sue ** currency.printing 印刷术main article: h**tory of typography in east asiathe chinese invention of woodblock printing, at some point before the first dated book in 868 (the diamond sutra), produced the world's first print culture. according to a. hyatt mayor, curator at the metropolitan museum of art, "it was the chinese who really d**covered the means of communication that was to dominate until our age." woodblock printing was better suited to chinese characters than movable type, which the chinese also invented, but which did not replace woodblock printing. western printing presses, although introduced in the 16th century, were not widely used in china until the 19th century. china, along with korea, was one of the last countries to adopt them.the intricate front**piece of the diamond sutra from tang dynasty china, ad 868 (brit**h museum)woodblock printing for textiles, on the other hand, preceded text printing by centuries in all cultures, and ** first found in china at around 220, then egypt in the 4th century, and reached europe by the 14th century or before, via the **ic world, and by around 1400 was being used on ** for old master prints and playing cards. in another analys** hyatt mayor states that "a little before 1400 europeans had enough ** to begin making holy images and playing cards in woodcut. they need not h**e learned woodcut from the chinese, because they had been using woodblocks for about 1,000 years to stamp designs on linen."printing in china was further advanced by the 11th century, as it was written by the song dynasty scient**t and statesman shen kuo (1031-1095) that the common art**an bi sheng (990-1051) invented ceramic movable type printing.then there were those such as wang zhen (fl. 1290-1333) and hua sui (1439-1513), the former of whom invented wooden movable type printing in china, the latter of whom invented metal movable type printing in china. movable type printing was a tedious process if one were to assemble thousands of individual characters for the printing of simply one or a few books, but if used for printing thousands of books, the process was efficient and rapid enough to be successful and highly employed. indeed, there were many cities in china where movable type printing, in wooden and metal form, was adopted by the enterpr**es of wealthy local families or large private industries. the qing dynasty court sponsored enormous printing projects using woodblock movable type printing during the 18th century. although superseded by western printing techniques, woodblock movable type printing remains in use in **olated communities in china. 20210311