What is the history of the compass?
The earliest "compass" in the Warring States period, our people used magnets to create a tool to indicate the direction, called "Sina". "Sina" means guide.
Sina's shape is completely different from the current compass. It is made according to the shape of the spoon in ancient China, much like the spoon we use now.
how is Sina made? There is a lack of detailed records in ancient books, and there is no physical object left, so we have no way to know its exact shape. According to the research of experts, SiNa is about to polish the whole piece of natural magnet into the shape of a spoon, and polish its S pole into a long handle, so that the center of gravity falls in the middle of the round and smooth bottom.
after Sina is finished, she has to make a smooth chassis. When in use, put the chassis flat first, then put SiNa in the middle of the chassis, and move its handle by hand to make it rotate. When Sina stops, its long handle points to the south, and the mouth of the spoon points to the north.
Sina's chassis is made of bronze, and some are painted wooden plates. Both bronze and lacquerware are smooth, and the friction resistance is small, so Sina is flexible to rotate. This kind of chassis has an inner circle and an outer circle, and its periphery is also engraved with grid lines and characters indicating the orientation. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are such copper plates and painted wooden plates; There is also a stone carving in the Eastern Han Dynasty, engraved with a small spoon on a small square platform. Some people think that this is Sina.
Sina is the earliest "compass" in the world. During the Warring States period, some people went to collect jade, and they were afraid of getting lost in the barren hills, so they took Sina with them.
Sina must rotate on a smooth chassis, and the chassis must be flat, otherwise it will affect the function of its guide and even make it slide off the chassis. Therefore, after people invented Sina, they continued to research tools to improve the guide.
In 96 AD, Song Taizu established the Song Dynasty, ending the feudal regime in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the Northern Song Dynasty, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce all made new progress. On this basis, China has made brilliant achievements in science and technology. During the Song Dynasty, China made great progress in the manufacture of compasses, just like papermaking and printing.
in the early years of the northern song dynasty, China created another guide tool-the guide fish.
At that time, there was a famous military work called "The General Outline of the Martial Classics", which said: When marching, if it is cloudy and dark, and you can't tell the direction, you should let the old horse lead the way, or use the compass and the compass to tell the direction. The book "Wu Jing Zong Yao" was written four years before the reign of Emperor Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 144). That is to say, at that time, there was already a guide fish in China and it was applied to the military.
The compass fish is made of a thin piece of steel, which looks like a fish. It is two inches long and five minutes wide, and the belly of the fish is partially sunken, so that it can float on the water like a boat.
Fish made of steel sheet is not magnetic, so it has no guiding function. If you want it to be a guide, you must also use artificial magnetic transfer to make it a magnet with magnetism.
There is no clear record on how to transfer magnetism artificially, but it points out that the guide finger fish should be collected with a "secret device", that is, a sealed zygote should be hidden. According to this point of view, the artificial magnetic transmission method at that time was about this: put the fish made of steel sheet and natural magnet in the same sealed zygote and make them contact. After a long time, the fish made of steel sheet will also be magnetic and become magnets.
It turns out that every molecule in magnetized or unmagnetized steel is a "small magnet". Without magnetization, the molecules of the steel bar are arranged out of order, and the magnetism of the "small magnets" cancel each other out. Magnetized steel bar, all the "small magnets" are arranged neatly, and the magnetic poles of the same sex face in one direction. Needless to say, the whole steel bar is magnetic. If you take a magnet and rub it tightly against an unmagnetized steel bar, and it always moves from one end to the other, then, due to the attraction of the magnet, the molecules in the ordinary steel bar are also arranged in one direction, thus completing the work of "magnetic transmission". The "secret device collection" mentioned in the "Wu Jing Zong Yao" may refer to this artificial magnetic transmission method.
It is a great progress that our people invented the artificial magnet as the guide fish. This shows that our people had quite rich knowledge of magnets more than 9 years ago.
It's more convenient to use a guide fish than Sina. It doesn't need to make a smooth copper plate, just a bowl of water. Even if the bowl of water is placed unevenly, it will not affect the function of the guide, because the water in the bowl is flat. Moreover, because the friction of liquid is smaller than that of solid, it is more flexible to rotate, so it is more sensitive and accurate than Sina.
At that time, there were not only steel-made guide fish, but also wood-made guide fish and guide turtles. In the Song Dynasty, Shi Lin Guang Ji recorded the method of making a guide fish out of wood: carve a piece of wood into the shape of a fish, which is as big as a finger, dig a hole in the mouth of the fish, put a magnet in it, make it S-class outward, and then seal the mouth with wax. In addition, insert a needle into the fish's mouth and the fish in the south of the room will be ready. Put the guide fish on the water, and the needle in the fish's mouth points south.
The guide turtle is also carved out of wood, and the way to put the magnet is the same as that of the wooden guide fish, which is inserted in the tail. The turtle is not put in the water. People dig a hole under its belly and put it on a smooth bamboo nail to make it rotate freely. The needle at its tail will automatically point to the south.
This kind of wooden guide fish and guide turtle was probably created by some alchemists who knew the magic, and it was only used for magic tricks. Therefore, the author of Shi Lin Guang Ji regarded them as "Fairy Illusion".
the invention of gunpowder
one of four great inventions of ancient china. When the ancient alchemists made medicines, it was gradually discovered that the mixture of sulfur (S), flame nitrate (KN□) and charcoal (C) had the ability of burning and explosion. During the last days of the Tang Dynasty (94 ~ 96), gunpowder arrows began to appear in the war, and there was also a record of "Fei Huo as the starter", that is, a trebuchet was used to throw gunpowder bags as combustible weapons. In the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo (now Kaifeng, Henan Province) set up a wide range of siege works, including departments that produced gunpowder. The book Wu Jing Zong Yao records three formulations of gunpowder, and the production of gunpowder has reached a considerable scale. Although the production technology was strictly confidential, it was still introduced to Liao Dynasty. Therefore, while importing a large amount of sulfur from Japan, it was forbidden to export sulfur and flame nitrate to Liao. When Zhao Zhuan was in Song Shenzong, a large number of frontier troops were equipped with gunpowder bows and arrows, gunpowder artillery arrows and other weapons. During the reign of Liao Daozong, he also analyzed the "Japanese artillery" in Tianjin (now Beijing) in Nanjing. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the water army was also equipped with thunderbolt guns, artillery, rockets and other weapons, and gunpowder weapons manufacturing industries were set up in cities such as Jiankang House (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) and Jiangling House (now Jiangling, Hubei Province). Early gunpowder weapons had limited power and could not replace cold weapons. However, since the mid-Southern Song Dynasty, the proportion of gunpowder weapons in weapons has increased significantly (see the colorful rocket (model), which tied the gunpowder barrel to the front of the arrow and used the back thrust generated by gunpowder combustion to drive the arrow forward, which was one of the gunpowder weapons equipped by the army in the Song Dynasty). Jin dynasty gunpowder manufacturing technology originated from Liao dynasty, and Jin army used artillery at the beginning of attacking Song dynasty. Since then, in the war between Song, Jin and Yuan, gunpowder has been used more and more frequently. At the end of Jin Dynasty, when he fought against the Mongolian army, he used firearms such as thunderbolt and flying musket. Iron artillery similar to modern artillery shells appeared in Song Dynasty, but they were still projected by trebuchets. He also invented a musket, which used giant bamboo as a barrel to launch a "sub-nest", similar to later guns, but did not use a metal launch tube. This is the limit of the progress of gunpowder weapons in Liao, Song and Jin Dynasties, but it has determined the development direction of gunpowder weapons in later generations. In a word, Liao, Song and Jin Dynasties can be regarded as the foundation period of human use of gunpowder. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, tubular firearms made of copper and iron-spear and cannon-were discovered.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, the use of gunpowder became more and more common, and firearms were further developed. In order to defend against the invasion of the nomads from the Southern Song Dynasty, the military strategists constantly tried to improve their weapons. At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, in the second year of Shaoxing, Song Gaozong (AD 1132), a military scientist named Taoji invented a tubular fire < P > device-musket, which was a great progress in the history of firearms.
This musket is made of long bamboo poles, and the bamboo tubes are filled with gunpowder. In a war, two people hold it, light it, shoot it out, and use it to burn the enemy.
this is the earliest tubular firearm in China. Putting gunpowder in a bamboo tube to make a musket is a great progress in the application of gunpowder. It is not easy to hit the target accurately by firing gunpowder with a trebuchet; With tubular firearms, people can fire more accurately and properly handle the initiation of arson drugs.
after the invention of musket, after continuous improvement, it was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that someone invented the musket. The musket is made of coarse bamboo tube, which contains gunpowder and something called "Zi Zhen". After the gunpowder was lit with a torch, it gave off a flame at first, and then the "bullet" was shot out and made a sound like a gun.
what exactly is this "sub-nest"? It is probably one of the earliest bullets, but it is a pity that there is no explanation in ancient books.
The function of muskets is only to burn people, but sudden muskets can hit people, which is a step further than muskets.
muskets and muskets are primitive tubular firearms made of bamboo tubes, which are not powerful, but they are the ancestors of modern guns. Modern guns developed slowly from them.
The invention of papermaking
In the first year of Yuan Xing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (15), Cai Lun reformed and popularized papermaking technology on the basis of previous papermaking techniques. The new papermaking technology has changed the old hemp paper which is inconvenient to write into a good paper technology with the general structure unchanged so far.
Before Cai Lun papermaking appeared, in China, Oracle bones were used in Shang Dynasty, bronzes were used in Western Zhou Dynasty, and bamboo slips, wooden slips and silks were used in Spring and Autumn. In the Han Dynasty, agriculture was developed, economy was prosperous, national strength was strong, and cultural undertakings flourished. Heavy bamboo slips and expensive silk can no longer meet people's needs, and it has become the trend of the times to seek new writing materials, so papermaking came into being.
According to the hemp ancient paper unearthed in Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places since the middle of the 2th century, experts confirmed that it was a flaky fiber of hemp paper in the Western Han Dynasty, indicating that papermaking may have appeared before Cai Lun, and it may be related to people's treatment of textile hemp. However, no recognizable written characters were found in these hemp ancient paper in the Western Han Dynasty, and the interpretation of the results of laboratory analysis is different. There is still great controversy about whether there has been a paper-making industry in the Western Han Dynasty. The record of Cai Lun Biography of the Later Han Dynasty about Cai Lun's invention of papermaking is the earliest record with accurate time and characters so far, which is widely recognized by people.
Cai Lun (62 ~ 121), born in Guiyang (now Chenzhou, Hunan), entered the palace as an official in the 18th year of Yongping, Ming Di (75). Zhang Dizhang and the first year (87) served as Shang Fangling, in charge of the palace manual workshop. He invented papermaking in the first year of Emperor Yuanxing (15). In the first year of the early Yuan Dynasty (114), the Emperor Andi was named Dragon Pavilion Hou. Andy died in the first year of Jianguang (121) and was buried in a fief.
The Biography of Cai Lun in the Later Han Dynasty records that before Cai Lun made paper, the paper on which notes were written was actually silk fabric (silk), and Cai Lun made plant fiber paper from bark, hemp head, rags and fishing nets through a series of technological processes such as crushing, ramming, copying and baking, which is a good paper with the general structure unchanged so far, and it is also a real paper. In 15, Cai Lun presented paper to Emperor Han and was praised by Emperor He. Papermaking is widely known all over the world, and the paper made in Cai Lun is called "Cai Hou Paper"; 15 is generally regarded as the invention age of papermaking.
Cai Lun's reform and popularization of papermaking made the use of paper more and more after the Eastern Han Dynasty. From the archaeological excavations of ancient paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it can be seen that many of them have written fonts, and the quality has been obviously improved. These ancient paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, or copied poems, or letters, or the remnants of letters, are the products of the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which should be exactly around the fourth year of the Yongzheng period (11). Scientists made a detailed scientific analysis of ancient paper with handwriting unearthed from the tomb of the late Eastern Han Dynasty in Wuwei, Gansu Province in 1974. It was found that ancient paper had a certain strength and flexibility, and its thickness was equivalent to that of modern machine-made manuscript paper. The raw materials were hemp fibers, such as hemp, which were finely intertwined and coated on one side, indicating that the papermaking process at that time was quite fine and the papermaking technology had reached a certain level.
The use of paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty was recorded in many manuscripts and documents. For example, the tribute paper mentioned in the History of Empress Deng in the Later Han Dynasty and the Shaofu Palace Guard Order and Shangshu Order, which are in charge of paper and ink in the court, in the History of Baiguan Zhi in the Later Han Dynasty, indicate that paper has been widely used in the court. However, the notes and writing papers contained in the Biography of Yan Du in the Later Han Dynasty and the stationery contained in the Book of Bei Tang indicate that ordinary officials and scholars also use paper to write.
The invention of papermaking is one of the greatest inventions in ancient China, and it is also the most outstanding achievement in the history of human civilization. The appearance of paper is the foundation of human civilization. As a new information carrier, it first appeared in China, which made the civilization of Han Dynasty in China flourish more than other civilizations. Around the 8th century, Arabs began to use China's technology and equipment to make paper.
The appearance and popularization of paper brought a brand-new look to the cultural life after the Han Dynasty. The quality of paper is getting better and better. In the second year of Pingping in Hanzhong (185), Zuobo (Zi Ziyi), a paper expert in Shandong Province, made Zuobo paper, which was called "Zi Yi's paper, brilliant and brilliant" in history. From the 2nd century to the 5th century, Zuo Bo's paper, Zhang Zhi's pen and Wei Dan's ink were once the favorite stationery of literati. However, bamboo slips and silk are still the main writing materials in the Han Dynasty. It was not until the Jin Dynasty that economic development and papermaking spread to the Yangtze River valley and the south of the Yangtze River, and there were abundant papermaking materials, and more and better papers appeared. The prevailing trend of reading, copying books and collecting books in Jin Dynasty benefited from the popularization and promotion of paper. Copy warp