MITTEN$, CULTURE AND INNOVATION

To make up a little for my ignorance, I've been reading a 1-volume history of China and I've been impressed by the number of Chinese inventions and discoveries.  It seems clear that in many ways, the Chinese were centuries ahead of Western (Christian or Pagan) Europe.

Pascal's Triangle (1654 AD) was preceded by the Chinese version in 1303 AD.

Magnetic compasses were first used to determine direction between 850 AD and 1050 AD by the Chinese.

Paper and Printing were created first by the Chinese:

In the Han dynasty, 206B.C.-A.D.220, paper and ink were invented.

In the T'ang dynasty, 618-906, the first printer was invented. In 868 AD the earliest known book ever was printed.

The Wheelbarrow is also Chinese: "Chuko Liang (181-234 A.D.) of China is considered to be the inventor of the wheelbarrow."

Cast iron in the east: 513 BC

Thus far in the story iron has been heated and hammered, but never melted. Its melting point (1528°C) is too high for primitive furnaces, which can reach about 1300°C and are adequate for copper (melting at 1083°C). This limitation is overcome when the Chinese develop a furnace hot enough to melt iron, enabling them to produce the world's first cast iron - an event traditionally dated in the Chinese histories to 513 BC.

In this they are a thousand and more years ahead of the western world. The first iron foundry in England, for example, dates only from AD 1161. By that time the Chinese have already pioneered the structural use of cast iron, using it sometimes for the pillars of full-size pagodas.

Steel:

In the Second Century B.C., the Chinese developed what became known in the West as the Bessemer process. They developed a method for converting cast iron into steel, by blowing air on the molten metal, which reduced the carbon content.

Under the Song dynasty, the iron and steel industry reached a level that was spectacular, compared to that in Europe. Between 850 and 1050, iron production increased 12-fold. By 1078, North China was producing more than 114,000 tons of pig iron a year. In 1788, seven hundred years later, England's production of pig iron was around 50,000 tons.