INVENTIONS IN SONG SYNASTY

THE INVENTION OF THE COMPASS

One of the most famous inventions in the entire history of China was the compass, and it was developed in the Song dynasty. This invention eventually led to the look of the modern compass, but the chinese compass looks like the picture above. The scholars and inventors of the Song dynasty improved this compass, almost to perfection. They took the iron needle that was used as the pointer and they learned how to magnetize it. This magnetization happened by rubbing the iron in magnetite, and then the iron needle was placed in water. The compass worked quite well. The needle would always point north, because the needle was under Earth's magnetic pulse, so it pointed to the north pole.

The compass that was reinvented in the Song dynasty was developed in the 12th century C.E. This invention was used all around the world soon after, and began to be used for navigation consistently. The Chinese  people used these compasses to navigate their way to the Arabic Sea and Persia.

The compass has changed peoples' lives dramatically in the last 1,000 years. Without the invention of the compass, navigating the seas would be very hard to do. Also the compass led to the inventions of many other technologies such as sonar. People all over the world have been impacted by the invention of the compass. In medieval Europe, the Venetian culture had a very high respect towards sailing. The compass helped them navigate, so they could take trips for longer periods of time, improving their skills greatly. The whole entire world has to thank China for its invention of the compass, because the people would be "lost" without it! Haha, get it? No, ok not funny sorry!

Picture from: http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26519.htm

Credit to:http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26519.htm

              and http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/song/