Chinese Inventions - Compass & Gunpowder

Chinese Inventions - Compass & Gunpowder

Chinese Inventions - Compass & Gunpowder
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.06

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		atomic, combats, direction-finding, earliest-known, envoy, loadstone, navigation, saltpeter, stability, repeated, dynasty, concoction, diplomatic, element, warfare, devise
	content words:		Leo Szilard, Though Leo Szilard, World War II, Warring States Period, Northern Song, Zheng He, His Treasure Fleet, Christopher Columbus, When Europeans

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Chinese Inventions - Compass & Gunpowder
By Vickie Chao

¹     Have you ever had an idea that didn't quite turn out the way you intended when you put it to the test? That "surprise" element is something an inventor is very familiar with. A case in point is Leo Szilard (1898 - 1964) who patented the idea of a nuclear chain reaction in 1934. Though Leo Szilard came up with the idea and helped the U.S. government create the first atomic bomb, he was adamantly against using it on moral grounds. Despite his repeated pleas, the U.S. government dropped two atomic bombs in Japan in 1945 and effectively ended World War II.

²     Leo Szilard was certainly neither the first nor the last inventor whose product was being used in a way different from its initial design. Looking back in history, there are two Chinese inventions that can attest to that statement. The duo is the compass and gunpowder.

³     The earliest-known compass dates from China during the Warring States Period (475 B.C. - 221 B.C.) At the time, people used an instrument called "Sinan" for fortune telling and other spiritual applications. A Sinan consisted of two components. The first, top part was a metal spoon made of loadstone. The second, bottom part was a square bronze plate with markings pointing to twenty-four different directions. Because loadstone aligned with the Earth's natural magnetic field, the spoon's handle would always point to south when placed on the plate. The ancient Chinese quickly realized the potential application of this direction-finding devise. So they began to work on improving its stability. The compass of later days had a magnetized needle on a round plate. Its first recorded use as a navigation tool on ships was during the Northern Song dynasty (960 A.D. - 1127 A.D.)

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