As one of the earliest countries to apply machinery, China boasts a lot of unique inventions like the compass vehicle, the seismograph, and the incense burner with their respective characteristics on using power and mechanical structural design.
Metallurgy and the development of machinery
A 6,000-year-old stone axe
Ancient metallurgy in China attained very high achievements very early. The bronze ware during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (about 1600BC to 221BC) are characterized by their unique vigorous and firm style. A bronze sword unearthed in Northwest China's Gansu Province, one of the earliest bronze ware ever found in China, was produced at least 4,800 years ago.
Roughly processed primitive tools for scratching, hacking, smashing, and drilling first appeared in China 400,000 to 500,000 years ago. The use of grinding in making tools appeared 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, contributing to sharper blades of the stoneware. Besides, the blades of the stoneware from that time vary in shape from single and double blades to convex, concave, and round blades.
Bronze arrowhead
The earliest invention in machinery came about 28,000 years ago when the bow and arrow were invented. The potter's wheel was invented somewhere in the period between eight millennium BC and 2,800 BC. Farm tools appeared approximately from 6,000 BC to 5,000 BC. Besides the more familiar tools like the stone axe and stone sword, there were also the stone hoe, stone scoop, stone sickle, mussel shell sickle, bone sickle, and bone thresher. On the stone axe and stone sword, there were already intentionally grinded holes.
In the time prior to the Xia Dynasty (about 21st to 16th century BC) and during the Xia Dynasty, the wooden wheel without spoke and the one with spokes successively appeared. Delicately double-wheeled carts appeared during the Shang (about 16th century BC to 11th century BC) and West Zhou (about 1100-771BC) dynasties, while water vehicles like dugout canoe and rafts appeared even earlier.
Zenghou Yi Bronze Plate
At the end of the Neolithic period, people in China could already use stone and clay molds to create some simple tools and weapons. With some significant improvements in handicraft and skills in the Shang Dynasty, the bronze ware culture at the time was brilliant. The bronze casting technology, represented by the mighty 875-kilo Sima Wu Ding (an ancient cooking and ceremonial vessel) as well as the delicate Zenghou Yi Bronze Plate, was very highly sophisticated.
The time from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Wei Dynasty (770BC-265AD) witnessed rapid development in ancient machinery. Ironware and pig iron casting technology began to appear during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). The emergence of steel accelerated the transition of Chinese society from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD), cast wares that were as thin as three to five millimeters appeared.
A Qin soilder shooting a crossbow, which was the most accurate weapon at the time.
The crossbow, which once greatly boosted the strength of the invincible Qin troops, first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period. By the Han Dynasty (206BC-220), the precision and the flatness of the device were noticeable. The Han crossbows were divided into eight categories, demonstrating the manufacturing standardization that was primarily established in China early in the Han Dynasty. The craftsmen's name was engraved on each of the crossbow.
A Qin soilder shooting a crossbow, which was the most accurate weapon at the time.
Kao Gong Ji , prevailing in the Warring States Period (475-221BC), was the earliest extant professional treatise on craftsmanship. The book covered a wide range of subjects such as the manufacturing method of wheels, the elasticity of bows, and the velocity and stability of arrows. Various ships, including three- or four-storied ones, abounded in the Han Dynasty, while some were equipped with a stern rudder and an efficient advancing tool - the scull (an oar placed over the boat's rear part to propel the boat). The incense burner in the Western Han Dynasty was skillfully designed. No matter how the ball-shaped burner rolled, the part in the center where the incense was burned could remain horizontal.
The consistent development of transportation tools and the emergence of a complex drive structure
The bronze cart and horses
The bronze cart and horses excavated in 1980 in the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum (site of the Terracotta Warriors) of Xi'an in North China's Shaanxi Province represented the development level of casting technology, metal processing, and assembly skills at the time. The Jiligu cart (which had a group of decelerating gear insides) and the compass vehicle appeared after the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The compass vehicle produced by Ma Jun in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) not only applies a gear-driven system, but also an automatic clutch device, highlighting its improvement over the Jiligu cart. The invention of the automatic clutch device also demonstrates the considerable development of a complex drive structure.
Gears and gear clusters in various shapes and of different uses, highlighted by ratchet wheels (wheels that are toothed in a way that ensures motion in a certain direction) and especially the highly accurate gear cluster used in
The armillary sphere (hun tian yi)
astronomical apparatuses, abounded in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). The armillary sphere (three-dimensional map of the celestial sphere) and the seismograph invented by the Chinese scientist Zhang Heng in the year 132 best exemplify the achievements in transmission.
The textile technology and weaving machine experienced significant achievements in the Han Dynasty. By the Three Kingdoms period, Ma Jun enhanced the weaving machine, greatly improving working efficiency. Meanwhile, he also invented a kind of waterwheel, which could continuously lift water from a lower place to a higher place.
The plow in the Han Dynasty had moldboards, which could turn over and smash the soil. The animal-dray seed plough appeared during the reign of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty; it is recorded that one such plough could plant more than a hectare each day. One of the excavated iron lions founded in the Five Dynasties (907-960) is as heavy as 40 tons.
The silver box in the Tang Dynasty
The machinery manufacturing had attained very significant achievements by the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Tang silver box unearthed in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province and the capital of the Tang Dynasty when it was known as Chang'an, demonstrated a high precision of the machinery at the time, with the lid and the box very accurately conjugated together.
Water vehicles also experienced substantial improvement during the period. The swift boat invented by Zu Chongzhi (429-500) was claimed to be able to cruise 100 li (50 kilometers) per day. Ran by manpower, some of the military boats at the time were equipped with as many as 160 oars.
The water-powered machinery saw significant improvement in the Tang Dynasty with the improvement of Chinese waterwheels. By the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), the water-driven large-scale spinning wheel appeared, while the hand-driven spinning machine at the time was among the world's most advanced.
Zi Ren Yi Zhi , written by Xue Jingshi in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), summarized the author's own experiences in carpentry, and recorded the spinning machine and vehicles at the time. The book is known as a classic in wood machinery production.
Zheng He's Fleet
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the shipbuilding industry was very advanced. The fleet that Zheng He used in his seven famous voyages was the strongest and largest in the world at the time. His ship, the largest ocean vehicle at the time, was 137 meters long with twelve sails as well as an 11-meter-long tiller (a device connecting the rudder to the steering wheel).
By the mid-Ming Dynasty, the wood sailing vessel could already march on against the wind, and steer in all wind directions.
Features However, the machinery products in ancient China, such as the large-scale and heavy steel anchors, as well as small and tiny needles, were mainly handmade.
Piston Bellows
The piston bellows (a device to blast air into furnaces) that were prevalent at the time appeared during the Ming Dynasty, which was a great improvement from the wood fans in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and greatly enhanced the blasting facilities for metal melting.
The advancement of machinery also promoted academic researches. In 1627, Wang Zheng translated and published a book introducing the development of machinery in the West. Some Western inventions like the chime clock were also brought to China. From 1634 to 1637, Song Yingxing wrote and then published Tian Gong Kai Wu (Exploration of the Works of Nature), which recorded many advanced technologies and scientific inventions, reflecting the development of the agricultural and handcraft industries at the time.
During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the palace also produced a big clock with distinctive Chinese features. Chinese watchmakers produced a lot of novel watches and clocks in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Guangzhou in South China, and Suzhou, Nanjing, and Yangzhou of East China were cities famous for their watches at the time.
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