African inventions-From the way ancient Africans hunted for their food to evidence suggesting some of
the early inventions that helped ancient cultures thrive, many advancements took place in many regions
of Africa. In this article, you will learn about ancient practices that involved agriculture, art, basket
making, weaving, and cloth making. Other inventions and techniques developed by the ancient Africans
include:
· Bows and arrows helped the Africans hunt animals for food, as well as became a useful method of
keeping their enemies on their toes.
· Advancements in agriculture also went hand in hand with the variety of livestock they were able to
tend. Pigs, camels, horses, goats, cattle, and sheep were caught and later tamed. Meat became an
increasing part of their diet. Changes in the structure and output of the animals that underwent
domestication also benefited the Africans. Milk secretions increased, wool became plentiful, and the
animal hair was used for weaving.
· Wall paintings of the ancient Egyptians depict the early use of plows. This invention involved an
animal guided by a harness that was connected to a heavy, short-handled, long-bladed hoe – a tool that
is still in use to this day. The use of the plow did not catch on to other cultures located outside of Africa
until after the Bronze Age (right between the Stone and Iron Age).
· The first 'plastic' material created by humans was linked to the ancient Africans. It was believed
comprised of water, sand, and clay. When molded or shaped, it could make items (like pottery) that was
later dried in the sun or baked until it became hard.
· The cloth making that early Africans participated in thrived due to a variety of inventions. Since the
fibers came in a naturally short form, they required assistance in being spun into threads so that cloth
could be made. The Africans came up with ways on how to spin threads, as well as weave the threads
into fabrics.
· Basket-making techniques utilized twigs and reeds. As the weaving of baskets advanced, the Africans
created mats that would become a stylized form of art in Egypt.
· By 4500 BC, weaving included the creation of rope.
· Flax was turned into impressive textiles through weaving by 3000 BC.
· By 1000 BC, woolen cloth was made by the ancient Africans.
Systems of Counting in Ancient Africa
By the time 35,000 BC rolled around, the ancient Africans started using tally sticks (also known as
counting sticks) as a way to keep track of numbers. The ancient African cultures were known as the first
people in all the world to use a system of counting to keep track of their affairs.
Inventions from the Islamic Empires-
From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many
innovations that we take for granted in daily life.
1) Coffee
The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became
livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from
Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca
and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the
first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London.
2) Pin-Hole Camera
The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye,
rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole
camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set
up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift
physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.
3) Chess
A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread
westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan.
4) Parachute
A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several
attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with
wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and
leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a
mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he
had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing.
5) Shampoo
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today.
The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable
oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they
did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in
1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.
6) Refinement
Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's foremost
scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he
invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or
forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.
7) Shaft
The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the
internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious
Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also
invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father
of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.
8) Metal Armor
Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in
the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by
Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard
against the chafing of the Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so much so that it became a cottage industry back
home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.
9) Pointed Arch
The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger
than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings.
Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's castles were also
adapted to copy the Islamic world's - with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more
easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle architect was a Muslim.
10) Surgery
Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called
al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a
modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his
monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn
Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of
opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.
11) Windmill
The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts
of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills
had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.
12) Vaccination
The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey
by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox
at least 50 years before the West discovered it.
13) Fountain Pen
The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It
held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.
14) Numerical Numbering
The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first
appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after alKhwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into
Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim
world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern
cryptology.
15) Soup
Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the
concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had
been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas - see No 4).
16) Carpets
Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic
chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art. In contrast, Europe's
floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors
were "covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring
expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets,
unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.
17) Pay Cheques
The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be
transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in
Baghdad.
18) Earch is in sphere shape?
By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the
Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of
Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40, 253.4km - less than
200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.
19) Rocket and Torpedo
Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified
using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a
rocket, which they called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the
front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.
20) Gardens
Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and
meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim
gardens include the carnation and the tulip.
Chinese Inventions
Writing A group of ancient tombs have been discovered in recent years in Shandong Province which date back 4,500 years. Among the relics are
about a dozen pottery wine vessels, which bear one character each. These characters are found to be stylized pictures of some physical objects,
and so are called pictographs.
By 1700 BC, symbols were carved on oracle bones and tortoise shells, shown at left. These are thought to be the first true Chinese writing.
These picture words underwent a gradual evolution over the centuries until the pictographs changed into "square characters," some simplified by
losing certain strokes and others made more complicated but, as a whole, from irregular drawings they became stylized forms. By 1200 BC
Chinese writing was already a highly developed writing system that was used to record a language fairly similar to classical Chinese. In 1000 BC
the first book was produced. By inventing writing so early in their history, the Chinese preserved a record of their history and learning.
Magnetic compass As early as 500 BC, Chinese scientists had studied and learned much about magnetism in nature. For example, they knew
that iron ore, called magnetite, tended to align itself in a North/South position. Scientists learned to "make magnets" by heating pieces of ore to
red hot temperatures and then cooling the pieces in a North/South position. The original lacquered earth plate, dating to the 3rd century BC, is
currently on display at the Museum of Chinese History. Later, the magnets were placed on bronze plates marked with directional bearings.
Compasses were first used in Feng Shui, the layout of buildings. By 1000 AD, navigational compasses were widely used on Chinese ships,
enabling them to navigate without stars in view. The magnetic compass remains an essential navigational tool today.
Movable Sails & Rudder China has a very old seafaring tradition. Chinese ships had sailed to India as early as the Han Dynasty. By 100 AD,
Chinese shipbuilders invented the stern post rudder and watertight compartments for ship's hulls. By 200 AD, they used several masts and the
redesigned the basic square sail with the fore-and-aft rig. This allowed the ship to sail into the wind. With these inventions, the Chinese trader
and explorer Zheng Ho sailed as far as Africa between 1405 and 1433. Mysteriously, China did not follow up on these voyages. The Chinese
destroyed their ocean going ships and halted further expeditions.
Coal & Iron Refining Iron was smelted in China by the 4th century BC, and steel was perfected by the 400's AD using coal as a high
temperature fuel. By having good refractory clays for the construction of blast furnace walls, and the discovery of how to reduce the temperature
at which iron melts by using phosphorus, the Chinese were able cast iron into ornamental and functional shapes. This expertise allowed the
production of pots and pans with thin walls. With the development of annealing, ploughshares, longer swords, and even buildings were eventually
made of iron. In later centuries, the mass production of steel made industrial machinery possible.
Great Wall The building of the Great Wall of China, one of the legendary seven wonders of the world, began in 221 BC in an effort to keep
Mongol invaders out. In the 600's AD, the Sui Emperor Yang Di began a huge project of repairing the ancient wall. The costs of rebuilding the
wall were enormous. The construction involved the forced labor of hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom died from the harsh working
conditions and were buried in the wall itself. Costs were also increased by the frequent robbery of supply wagons. 15,000 defense towers and
forts were constructed along the walls. It remains the largest structure ever built anywhere in the world, and is the only human made work on
earth visible from orbit.
Porcelain It seems that porcelain was not a sudden invention, although some claim that Tao-Yue in the 600's AD was the legendary inventor of
porcelain. He used so-called 'white clay' (kaolin) which he found along the Yangzte river where he was born. He added other types of clay to
produce the first white porcelain, which he sold as 'artificial jade' in the capital Chang-an. By around 900 AD, porcelain was perfected,
incorporating the translucent minerals quartz and feldspar. Porcelain was much finer than other clay ceramics, so thin as to be translucent. Its
white color could be painted in many colors. Porcelain was one of the most highly prized products from China, and in fact came to be called
"china."
Canals & Lock Imperial China's construction of waterways to connect different parts of its vast territory produced some of the world's greatest
water engineering projects. One of the most impressive was the building of the Grand Canal. Construction of the first Grand Canal began in the
early 600's to connect the Yellow River (Hwang He) in the north with the Yangzi River (Chiang Jiang) in the south. The project lasted for many
centuries as it was constantly enlarged and repaired. Once the Grand Canal was in use, people could carry messages and ships could carry rice
back and forth. Canal locks were another innovation in the 10th century. These allowed boats to go uphill and downhill, by raising or lowering
the water level within the lock. This invention allowed boats to travel farther inland. Today locks are used in places like Niagara Falls and the
Panama Canal.
Roads & Relay Hostels Roads and relay hostels, or inns, greatly improved communication and trade throughout the vast land of China. By the
late 700's, inns offered horses and food to travelers, and provided places for government officials to stay for the night during long journeys. The
system of roads allowed government inspectors, tax collectors, and postal messengers to move long distances. Messengers delivered mail across
hundreds of miles. Merchants could carry trade goods such as rice, tea, silk, and seafood without fear of bandits.
Gunpowder Around 200 AD, Chinese scientists discovered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and
saltpeter (potassium nitrate). The explosive mixture, called huoyao, was used by the military in the 900's during the Tang Dynasty. Imagine their
enemy's surprise when the Chinese first demonstrated their newest invention. New weapons were rapidly developed, including rockets that were
launched from a bamboo tube. The Chinese began experimenting with the gunpowder filled tubes. At some point, they attached bamboo tubes to
arrows and launched them with bows. Soon they discovered that these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced
from the escaping gas. The true rocket was born. The date reporting the first use of true rockets was in 1232. At this time, the Chinese and the
Mongols were at war with each other. During the battle of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled the Mongol invaders by a barrage of "arrows of flying
fire." These fire arrows were a simple form of a solid propellant rocket. A tube, capped at one end, contained gunpowder. The other end was left
open and the tube was attached to a long stick. When the powder was ignited, the rapid burning of the powder produced fire, smoke, and gas that
escaped out the open end and produced a thrust. The stick acted as a simple guidance system that kept the rocket headed in one general direction
as it flew through the air. It is not clear how effective these arrows of flying fire were as weapons of destruction, but their psychological effects
on the Mongols must have been formidable. Gunpowder changed the methods of war forever.
Mechanical Clock One of the greatest inventions of the medieval world was the mechanical clock. The difficulty in inventing a mechanical
clock was to figure out a way in which a wheel no bigger than a room could turn at the same speed as the Earth, but still be turning more or less
continuously. If this could be accomplished, then the wheel became a mini Earth and could tell the time. Yi Xing, a Buddhist monk, made the
first model of a mechanical clock in 725 AD. This clock operated by dripping water that powered a wheel which made one full revolution in 24
hours. An iron and bronze system of wheels and gears made the clock turn. This system caused the chiming of a bell on the hour. Su Sung's
great 'Cosmic Engine' of 1092 was 35 feet high. At the top was a power driven sphere for observing the positions of the stars. The power for
turning it was transmitted from the dripping water by a chain drive. A celestial globe inside the tower turned in synchronization with the sphere
above. It was two more centuries before the first mechanical clock was developed in Europe.
Smallpox Inoculation Inoculation works by introducing a weak form of a disease to stimulate the human body to fight off the disease.
Smallpox, a deadly virus characterized by skin blisters drying to crater-shaped scars, existed in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The technique of
inoculation was first publicly recognized when the son of Prime Minister Wang Dan (957-1017) died of smallpox. Hoping to prevent the same
thing from happening to other family members, Wang Dan summoned physicians from all over China. A Daoist monk introduced the technique
of inoculation to the physicians in the capital. By the 16th century it was widely practiced against smallpox in China. The technique was
unknown in Europe until the 1800's, when it was introduced by Doctor Louis Pasteur.
Abacus The Chinese developed the abacus, a counting device, around 100 AD. By the 1300's it was perfected and given the form it still has
today. The instrument consisted of a rectangular wooden frame with parallel rods. Each rod holds beads as counters. The rods are separated into
upper and lower parts by a crossbar. Each bead above the crosspiece is worth five units, and each below is worth one. The rungs or rods from
right to left indicate place value in powers of ten -- ones, tens, hundred, and so on. With this instrument the Chinese could add, subtract, multiply
and divide with remarkable speed. The abacus became the basic calculating device in Asia, where it is still widely used.
Spinning Wheel Silk was first made by the Chinese about 4000 years ago. Silk thread is made from the cocoon of the silkworm moth, whose
caterpillar eats the the leaves of the mulberry tree. Silk spinners needed a method to deal with the tough, long silk threads. To meet the increasing
demand for silk fabric, the Chinese developed the spinning wheel in 1035. This simple circular machine, easily operated by one person, could
wind fine fibers of silk into thread. The invention used a wheel to stretch and align the fibers. A drive belt made the wheels spin. Italians who
traveled to China during the Mongol dynasty brought the invention to Europe in the 14th century.
Movable Type The technique of printing with carved wood blocks appeared about the 7th century, early in the Tang dynasty. Block printing
reached its golden age during the Song dynasty, in the years 960-1279, as the imperial patronage encouraged the publication of large numbers of
books by the central and local governments. Movable type was first invented by Bi Sheng of the Song dynasty in the year 1045 AD. The
invention of reusable, moveable type made books cheaper and more available. Europeans separately invented movable type in the 1400's. Until
the invention of computers and photocopying in the 20th century, all books were printed using movable type.
Paper Money The Chinese invented paper money in the 9th century AD. Its original name was 'flying money' because it was so light it could
blow out of one's hand. As exchange certificates used by merchants, paper money was quickly adopted by the government for forwarding tax
payments. In 1024, the Song government took over the printing of paper money and used it as a medium of exchange backed by deposited "cash"
(a Chinese term for metal coins). The first Muslim bankers used a checking system by the 1200's, followed by Italian bankers in the 1400's.
Paper money is still the most common form of currency around the world.