Who made the safety match?

The Jönköping safety match factory – Johan Edvard Lundström (1815–1888) further developed Swedish chemist Gustaf Erik Pasch’s idea and applied for the patent on the phosphor-free safety match. His younger brother, Carl Frans Lundström (1823–1917) was an entrepreneur and industrialist with bold ideas.

Between 1844-1845, the brothers opened a safety match factory in Jönköping, Sweden. Manufacturing of safety matches began in 1853 and was a major success at the World Expo in Paris 1855. They were awarded the silver medal for managing to manufacture matches without the workers developing phosphorus poisoning.

Safety matches were expensive to produce and it wasn’t until 1868 that they became known throughout the world. These matches are still referred to as Allumettes Suédoises in France, Schwedenhölzer in Germany and Swedish Matches in England.

What is the composition of safety matches?

Discussion –

• \( \ce + 10KClO3 -> 3P4O10_ + 10KCl_ } \)
• \( \ce \)
• \( \ce \)
• \( \ce \)
• \( \ce \)
• \( \ce \)

The head of “strike anywhere” matches contain an oxidizing agent such as potassium chlorate together with tetraphosphorus trisulfide, P₄S₃, glass and binder. The phosphorus sulfide is easily ignited, the potassium chlorate decomposes to give oxygen, which in turn causes the phosphorus sulfide to burn more vigorously.

1. The head of safety matches are made of an oxidizing agent such as potassium chlorate, mixed with sulfur, fillers and glass powder.
2. The side of the box contains red phosphorus, binder and powdered glass.
3. The heat generated by friction when the match is struck causes a minute amount of red phosphorus to be converted to white phosphorus, which ignites spontaneously in air.

This sets off the decomposition of potassium chlorate to give oxygen and potassium chloride. The sulfur catches fire and ignites the wood. To schedule a demonstration, please login to the online, Login with your netid in the form of “netid\ ” Example: netid\jim : Match Head Reaction

Whose material is on the matchstick?

Which material is on the matchstick? Free 10 Questions 10 Marks 10 Mins The correct answer is Phosphorus,

Phosphorus is a material on the matchstick. In 1826, John Walker, a chemist in Stockton on Tees, discovered through a lucky accident that a stick coated with chemicals burst into flame when scraped across his hearth at home. He went on to invent the first friction match.

Key Points

The striking surface of the matchbox contains red phosphorus and the top of the matchstick contains potassium chlorate. Antimony sulfide, sulfur, potassium chlorate are the chemicals present in match stick. The head of safety matches is made of an oxidizing agent such as potassium chlorate, mixed with sulfur, fillers, and glass powder. The striking surface of the matchbox is made rough by adding some powdered glass. Red phosphorus is present on the striking surface of the matchbox. When you rub the head of the matchstick on the striking surface of the matchbox, some heat is generated due to the friction.

This heat breaks a small part of the red phosphorus chain.

After that, some red phosphorus transforms into white phosphorus. White phosphorus is a highly volatile chemical that ignites in the air. This sets off the decomposition of potassium chlorate to give oxygen and potassium chloride. The sulfur catches fire and ignites the wood.

Additional Information

Another type of matchstick is strike anywhere matches. In these matches, the phosphorus component is also present on the match head. Strike anywhere matchsticks are risky as they burn when rubbed on any surface. To generate fire, we need three things – heat, fuel, and oxygen, Whenever we bring together fuel, heat, and oxygen, we can produce fire.

Important Points

Sodium:

​ Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is ²³Na.

Manganese ​:

Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard brittle silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron.

Calcium:

​ Calcium is a mineral most often associated with healthy bones and teeth, although it also plays an important role in blood clotting, helping muscles to contract, and regulating normal heart rhythms and nerve functions.

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What is the origin of safety matches?

In 1830 French chemist Charles Sauria reformulated the match to eliminate the foul odor and lengthen the burning time. He created phosphorous-based matches that began to be manufactured in large quantities. Match factories (often utilizing child labor) and home match factories (populated largely by women) began turning out matches at an unprecedented rate. phossy jaw The phosphorous scraped from a single pack of matches contained enough poison to commit suicide or murder, both of which were reported occurrences of the era. A non-poisonous match using red, rather than white phosphorous was invented in the mid-1800s, however it was more expensive to produce. Only gradually, after agitation and worker actions like the London Matchgirl’s Strike in 1888, did governments pass legislation against the use of white phosphorous, which forced match manufacturers to reform their dangerous product. the london match girls strike From 1835 to the mid 1840’s, a radical faction of the Democratic Party came to be called the Locofocos, which at the time was a popular name for the match in the U.S. Anti-slavery and Anti-Monopoly, the Locofocos were originally named “the Equal Rights Party,” until a group of mainstream Democrats tried to disrupt one of their political meetings by turning off the gas lights.

1. The group continued their meeting anyway, debating in semi-darkness mitigated only by the light of matches struck and held aloft, thus earning their new name.
2. Led by editorial writer William Leggett, they were involved in the Flour Riot of 1837 and in general were for Free Trade, greater protection for Labor Unions, against paper money, financial speculation, and state banks.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said of the Locofocos: “The new race is stiff, heady, and rebellious; they are fanatics in freedom; they hate tolls, taxes, turnpikes, banks, hierarchies, governors, yea, almost laws.” The safety match was invented in 1844 in Sweden, by Gustaf Eric Pasch, improved on by Johan Edvard Lundström, and prevented unintentional combustion by separating the reactive ingredients between the match head and the striking surface. Pennsylvania attorney Joshua Pusey invented the matchbook, containing 50 matches and a striking surface on the inside of the cover.

1. The Diamond Match Company bought Pusey’s patent, and improved the safety of the design by placing the striking surface on the outside.
2. In 1896 a brewing company ordered more than fifty thousand matchbooks to advertise a new product, and the ubiquitous practice of matchbook advertising was born.
3. In the 1940’s the psychological warfare branch of the U.S.

government distributed thousands of matchbooks containing anti-nazi slogans to occupied countries, and the French Resistance produced matchbooks containing instructions on how to derail Nazi trains printed on the inside cover. Thirty thousand match heads will produce a 10-15 foot column of flame. A satchel of sixty thousand match heads has enough firepower to propel a 6 pound bowling ball 1500 feet. Today, Americans strike more than five hundred billion matches every year

Who invented the first friction match?

Walker did not patent his invention. Samuel Jones from London copied his idea and marketed his matches as “Lucifer’s”! In 1826, John Walker, a chemist in Stockton on Tees, discovered through lucky accident that a stick coated with chemicals burst into flame when scraped across his hearth at home.

• He went on to invent the first friction match.
• Until the first half of the nineteenth century, the process by which fire was created was slow and laborious.
• Walker’s friction match revolutionised the production, application and the portability of fire.
• Walker sold his first “Friction Light” on the 12th April 1827 from his pharmacy in Stockton on Tees.

Walker’s first friction matches were made of cardboard but he soon began to use wooden splints cut by hand. Later he packaged the matches in a cardboard box equipped with a piece of sandpaper for striking. He was advised to patent his matches but chose not to and, as a result, Samuel Jones of London copied his idea and launched his own “Lucifers” in 1829, an exact copy of Walkers “Friction Lights”.

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Which metal is used in safety match?

Initially heads were made of antimony trisulphide to make them burn vigorously. But safety matches ignite due to extreme reactivity of phosphorus with the potassium chlorate in the match head.

Does safety match contain white phosphorus?

The head of safety match contains:A. Antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorateB. Antimony chloride and potassium sulphideC. Antimony carbonateD. potassium sulphide Join Vedantu’s FREE Mastercalss Answer Verified Hint: The head of the match contains the chemical that can be ignited just by the heat produced by the friction.

• Antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorate both are used for burning purposes such as crackers, fireworks, explosives.
• Antimony chloride does not have explosive properties; it is used as a chemical reagent.
• Potassium sulphide is also used in fireworks.
• Complete solution: Potassium chlorate is an oxidizing agent.

The reaction of white phosphorus and potassium chlorate generates the heat. By using this heat antimony trisulphide ignites, so the combustion starts and antimony trisulphide burns. So, the match head is made up of antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorate.

Normally the antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorate do not react and the simple friction cannot burn the antimony trisulphide.The cover of the matchbox has a site that contains red phosphorus mixed with powdered glass and stuck by glue.When the head of the match is rubbed at the cover containing red phosphorus, friction generates.

Which produces enough energy required to convert the red phosphorus into white phosphorus which reacts with potassium chlorate and produces heat so the antimony trisulphide burns.So, the head of the safety match contains antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorate.

Thus, the correct option is (A). Note: Initially the white phosphorus was applied on the matchbox. Which on rubbing produce react with potassium chlorate and produce the heat to ignite the antimony trisulphide. But the white phosphorus is dangerous. So, now a day’s red phosphorus is used. By the heat of friction red phosphorus can be converted into white phosphorus.

The burning of a substance in presence of oxygen is known as combustion : The head of safety match contains:A. Antimony trisulphide and potassium chlorateB. Antimony chloride and potassium sulphideC. Antimony carbonateD. potassium sulphide

Is it safe to eat match heads?

Has your child swallowed matches? – Generally, matches are not toxic, and most cases will not require medical attention. The most common side effect is an upset stomach. However, there are a few special cases that need to be considered: How many matches did your child eat, and were the matches recently lit?

If your child is young and could have swallowed more than 12 matches, call the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222. The chemicals in the match head can cause damage to the kidneys and liver (this is rare). If the matches were lit not long before they were swallowed, there is danger that they could cause an internal burn. Like most small objects, they can also be a choking hazard. In these cases, seek immediate help and call 911.

What killed matchstick girls?

The Price Of Better Matches Came At The Cost Of Phossy Jaw – Wikimedia Commons The crowded conditions in 19th-century factories meant matchstick girls breathed in white phosphorus in toxic amounts. Matchmaking was a common trade across early 19th-century England and America, and matchmakers worked tirelessly to find new innovations in match technology.

• Enter: white phosphorous.
• Though notoriously toxic, the chemical could be rendered into a paste that could be lit on any surface with just a bit of friction.
• These so-called “strike-anywhere” matches, also known as lucifer matches, became incredibly popular — and the industry to create them became equally profitable.

Although factory owners knew that prolonged exposure to white phosphorous could cause the necrosis of the human jaw, they continued to use it anyway — and employed young women and girls in their factories for 10 to 15-hour days. A procession of 200 women workers file into a Westinghouse factory in 1904.

In 1900, nearly five million women were a part of the labor force. Every morning, factory workers would arrive to make matches. Mixers would stir up phosphorus with glue and color, while driers would line up thousands of matchsticks in a frame. Then, dippers would dunk the rack of matches into the phosphorus mixture.

After the matches dried, other workers would box them up. One dipper might create as many as 10 million matches in a single day — all while exposing themselves to deadly chemicals. Factory owners implemented new, albeit minor, procedures to limit the harm.

Are all matches made of wood?

An igniting match A match is a tool for starting a fire, Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper, One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matches are packaged in matchboxes, and paper matches are partially cut into rows and stapled into matchbooks,

Do safety matches contain sulphur and what?

Explanation – Modern safety matches usually have antimony sulfide, oxidizing agents such as potassium chlorate, and sulfur or charcoal in the heads, and red phosphorus in the striking surface. Report an Error Ask A Question Download App 0″ id=”comment_posts”>

What is the difference between safety matches and regular matches?

development of matches –

In match of modern friction matches: (1) strike-anywhere matches and (2) safety matches. The head of the strike-anywhere match contains all the chemicals necessary to obtain ignition from frictional heat, while the safety match has a head that ignites at a much higher temperature and must be struck on a specially prepared

Is red phosphorus toxic?

Ingestion: Pure Red-P is considered non-toxic. However, if contaminated with White-P, it may cause systemic poisoning.

Where were safety matches invented?

The first so-called ‘safety matches’ were made in Sweden in 1855.

Are safety matches the same as strike anywhere?

The main difference between safety matches and strike-anywhere matches is phosphorus. Because both ingredients needed for ignition are on the head of a strike-anywhere match, you can rub it on almost any hard, dry, and rough surface to ignite. Safety matches will not ignite until coming in contact with phosphorus.

What is the phosphorus in safety match?

The friction between the match and the striking surface causes the match to heat up. On the friction surface, a small amount of red phosphorus is transformed into white phosphorus.

Which country invented matchbox?

Early years: Lesney, the origin of the Matchbox name and the 1-75 series – A 1953-55 Lesney-Matchbox Road Roller, one of the first toys to be produced under the Matchbox name The Matchbox name originated in 1953 as a brand name of the British die-casting company Lesney Products, whose reputation was moulded by John W. “Jack” Odell (1920–2007), Leslie Charles Smith (1918–2005), and Rodney Smith.

1. The name Lesney was a portmanteau of Leslie and Rodney Smith’s first names.
2. Their first major sales success was the popular model of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation coach, which sold more than a million models.
3. Lesney co-owner Jack Odell then created a toy that paved the way for the company’s future success which was designed for his daughter.

Her school only allowed children to bring toys that could fit inside a matchbox, so Odell crafted a scaled-down version of the Lesney green and red road roller. This toy ultimately became the first of the 1-75 miniature range. A dump truck and a cement mixer completed the original three-model release that marked the starting point for the mass-market success of the Matchbox series.

1. The company decided to sell the models in replica matchboxes, thus yielding the name of the series.
2. Additional models continued to be added to the line throughout the decade, including cars such as an MG Midget TD, a Vauxhall Cresta, a Ford Zodiac, and many others.
3. As the collection grew, it also gradually became more international, including models of Volkswagens, a Citroën, and American makes.

To make such miniatures, the designers took detailed photographs of the real models, even obtaining some original blueprints. This enabled them to make models with surprisingly high levels of detail, despite the small scale. The size of the models allowed Matchbox to occupy a market niche barely touched by the competition; the associated price advantage made the toys affordable and helped establish “Matchbox” as a generic word for small toy cars, whatever the brand.

Who is the father of matchstick?

John Walker | English chemist and apothecary

In friction matches were invented by John Walker, an English chemist and apothecary, whose ledger of April 7, 1827, records the first sale of such matches. Walker’s “Friction Lights” had tips coated with a potassium chloride–antimony sulfide paste, which ignited when scraped between a fold of sandpaper. He never patented them.

: John Walker | English chemist and apothecary

Who invented Chinese matches?

Answers – 1. The Horse Collar: China. Third Century BCE. About the fourth century BC the Chinese devised a harness with a breast strap known as the trace harness, modified approximately one hundred later into the collar harness. Unlike the throat-and-girth harness used in the West, which choked a horse and reduced its efficiency (it took two horses to haul a half a ton), the collar harness allowed a single horse to haul a ton and a half.

• The trace harness arrived in Europe in the sixth century and made its way across Europe by the eighth century.2.
• The Wheelbarrow: China, First Century BCE.
• Wheelbarrows did not exist in Europe before the eleventh or twelfth century (the earliest known Western depiction is in a window at Chartres Cathedral, dated around 1220 CE).

Descriptions of the wheelbarrow in China refer to first century BCE, and the oldest surviving picture, a frieze relief from a tomb-shrine in Szechuan province, dates from about 118 CE.3. The Moldboard Plow: China, Third Centrury BCE. Called kuan, these ploughshares were made of malleable cast iron.

1. They had an advanced design, with a central ridge ending in a sharp point to cut the soil and wings which sloped gently up towards the center to throw the soil off the plow and reduce friction.
2. When brought to Holland in the 17th Century, these plows began the Agricultural Revolution.4.
3. Paper Money: China, Ninth Century CE.

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. Real paper money, used as a medium of exchange and backed by deposited cash (a Chinese term for metal coins), apparently came into use in the tenth century.

The first Western money was issued in Sweden in 1661. America followed in 1690, France in 1720, England in 1797, and Germany not until 1806.5. Cast Iron: China, Forth Century BCE. 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.

Coal, used as a fuel, was placed around elongated crucibles containing iron ore. This expertise allowed the production of pots and pans with thin walls. With the development of annealing in the third century, ploughshares, longer swords, and even buildings were eventually made of iron.

In the West, blast furnaces are known to have existed in Scandinavia by the late eighth century CE, but cast iron was not widely available in Europe before 1380.6. The Helicopter Rotor and the Propeller: China, Forth Century CE. By fourth century CE a common toy in China was the helicopter top, called the ‘bamboo dragonfly’.

The top was an axis with a cord wound round it, and with blades sticking out from the axis and set at an angle. One pulled the cord, and the top went climbing in the air. Sir George Cayley, the father of modern aeronautics, studied the Chinese helicopter top in 1809.

1. The helicopter top in China led to nothing but amusement and pleasure, but fourteen hundred years later it was to be one of the key elements in the birth of modern aeronautics in the West.7.
2. The Decimal System: China, Fourteenth Century BCE.
3. An example of how the Chinese used the decimal system may be seen in an inscription from the thirteenth century BC, in which ‘547 days’ is written ‘Five hundred plus four decades plus seven of days’.

The Chinese wrote with characters instead of an alphabet. When writing with a Western alphabet of more than nine letters, there is a temptation to go on with words like eleven. With Chinese characters, ten is ten-blank and eleven is ten-one (zero was left as a blank space: 405 is ‘four blank five’), This was much easier than inventing a new character for each number (imagine having to memorize an enormous number of characters just to read the date!).

Having a decimal system from the beginning was a big advantage in making mathematical advances. The first evidence of decimals in Europe is in a Spanish manuscript of 976 CE.8. The Seismograph: China, Second Century CE. China has always been plagued with earthquakes and the government wanted to know where the economy would be interrupted.

Making My Own Matches

A seismograph was developed by the brilliant scientist, mathematician, and inventor Chang Heng (whose works also show he envisaged the earth as a sphere with nine continents and introduced the crisscrossing grid of latitude and longitude). His invention was noted in court records of the later Han Dynasty in 132 CE (the fascinating description is too long to reproduce here.

It can be found on pgs.162-166 of Temple’s book). Modern seismographs only began development in 1848.9. Matches: China, Sixth Century CE. The first version of the match was invented in 577 CE by impoverished court ladies during a military siege. Hard pressed for tinder during the siege, they could otherwise not start fires for cooking, heating, etc.

The matches consisted of little sticks of pinewood impregnated with sulfur. There is no evidence of matches in Europe before 1530.10. Circulation of the Blood: China, Second Century BCE. Most people believe blood circulation was discovered by William Harvey in 1628, but there are other recorded notations dating back to the writings of an Arab of Damascus, al-Nafis (died 1288).

1. However, circulation appears discussed in full and complex form in The Yellow Emperor’s Manual of Corporeal Medicine in China by the second century BC.11.
2. Paper: China, Second Century BCE.
3. Papyrus, the inner bark of the papyrus plant, is not true paper.
4. Paper is a sheet of sediment which results from the settling of a layer of disintegrated fibers from a watery solution onto a flat mold.

Once the water is drained away, the deposited layer is removed and dried. The oldest surviving piece of paper in the world is made of hemp fibers, discovered in 1957 in a tomb near Xian, China, and dates from between the years 140 and 87 BCE. The oldest paper with writing on it, also from China, is dated to 110 CE and contains about two dozen characters.

Paper reached India in the seventh century and West Asia in the eighth. The Arabs sold paper to Europeans until manufacture in the West in the twelfth century.12. Brandy and Whiskey: China, Seventh Century CE. The tribal people of Central Asia discovered ‘frozen-out wine’ in their frigid climate in the third century CE.

In wine that had frozen was a remaining liquid (pure alcohol). Freezing became a test for alcohol content. Distilled wine was known in China by the seventh century. The distillation of alcohol in the West was discovered in Italy in the twelfth century.13.

The Kite: China, Fifth/Fourth Century BCE. Two kitemakers, Kungshu P’an who made kites shaped like birds which could fly for up to three days, and Mo Ti (who is said to have spent three years building a special kite) were famous in Chinese traditional stories from as early as the fifth century BCE. Kites were used in wartime as early as 1232 when kites with messages were flown over Mongol lines by the Chinese.

The strings were cut and the kites landed among the Chinese prisoners, inciting them to revolt and escape. Kites fitted with hooks and bait were used for fishing, and kites were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. The kite was first mentioned in Europe in a popular book of marvels and tricks in 1589.14.

The rocket and multistaged rockets: China, Eleventh and Twelfth CE Centuries, Around 1150 it crossed someone’s mind to attach a comet-like fireworks to a four foot bamboo stick with an arrowhead and a balancing weight behind the feathers. To make the rockets multi-staged, a secondary set of rockets was attached to the shaft, their fuses lighted as the first rockets burned out.

Rockets are first mentioned in the West in connection with a battle in Italy in 1380, arriving in the wake of Marco Polo. Not all Chinese scientific and technological achievements lie in the remote past. Contemporary scientists include Chen Ning Yang and Tsung Dao Lee (Nobel Physics Prize, 1957), and Choh Hao Li (biochemist, world’s foremost authority on the pituitary gland).

Where were safety matches invented?

The first so-called ‘safety matches’ were made in Sweden in 1855.

Why did John Walker invent the match?

Walkers Friction Match – A tin “Congreves” matchbox (1827) He developed an interest in trying to find a means of obtaining fire easily. Several chemical mixtures were already known which would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to a slow-burning substance like wood.

1. While Walker was preparing a lighting mixture on one occasion, a match which had been dipped in it took fire by an accidental friction upon the hearth.
2. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery, and started making friction matches.
3. They consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum, the sulphur serving to communicate the flame to the wood.

The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling, With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. He did not name the matches ” Congreves ” in honour of the inventor and rocket pioneer, Sir William Congreve as it is sometimes stated.

The congreves were the invention of Charles Sauria, a French chemistry student at the time. He did not divulge the exact composition of his matches. Two and a half years after Walker’s invention was made public, Isaac Holden arrived, independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur.

The exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829. Previously to this date, Walker’s sales-book contains an account of no fewer than 250 sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April 1827. Already comfortably well off, he refused to patent his invention, despite being encouraged to by Michael Faraday and others, making it freely available for anyone to make.

• He received neither fame nor wealth for his invention, although he was able to retire some years later.
• The credit for his invention was attributed only after his death.
• Following the ideas laid out by the French chemist Charles Sauria, who in 1830 invented the first phosphorus-based match by replacing the antimony sulfide in Walker’s matches with white phosphorus, matches were first patented in the United States in 1836, in Massachusetts, being smaller in size and safer to use.

White phosphorus was later banned for public usage because of its toxicity. Today’s modern safety matches were created by the Swedish chemist, Gustaf Erik Pasch,

Who made matches in China?

Answers – 1. The Horse Collar: China. Third Century BCE. About the fourth century BC the Chinese devised a harness with a breast strap known as the trace harness, modified approximately one hundred later into the collar harness. Unlike the throat-and-girth harness used in the West, which choked a horse and reduced its efficiency (it took two horses to haul a half a ton), the collar harness allowed a single horse to haul a ton and a half.

1. The trace harness arrived in Europe in the sixth century and made its way across Europe by the eighth century.2.
2. The Wheelbarrow: China, First Century BCE.
3. Wheelbarrows did not exist in Europe before the eleventh or twelfth century (the earliest known Western depiction is in a window at Chartres Cathedral, dated around 1220 CE).

Descriptions of the wheelbarrow in China refer to first century BCE, and the oldest surviving picture, a frieze relief from a tomb-shrine in Szechuan province, dates from about 118 CE.3. The Moldboard Plow: China, Third Centrury BCE. Called kuan, these ploughshares were made of malleable cast iron.

• They had an advanced design, with a central ridge ending in a sharp point to cut the soil and wings which sloped gently up towards the center to throw the soil off the plow and reduce friction.
• When brought to Holland in the 17th Century, these plows began the Agricultural Revolution.4.
• Paper Money: China, Ninth Century CE.

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. Real paper money, used as a medium of exchange and backed by deposited cash (a Chinese term for metal coins), apparently came into use in the tenth century.

The first Western money was issued in Sweden in 1661. America followed in 1690, France in 1720, England in 1797, and Germany not until 1806.5. Cast Iron: China, Forth Century BCE. 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.

Coal, used as a fuel, was placed around elongated crucibles containing iron ore. This expertise allowed the production of pots and pans with thin walls. With the development of annealing in the third century, ploughshares, longer swords, and even buildings were eventually made of iron.

In the West, blast furnaces are known to have existed in Scandinavia by the late eighth century CE, but cast iron was not widely available in Europe before 1380.6. The Helicopter Rotor and the Propeller: China, Forth Century CE. By fourth century CE a common toy in China was the helicopter top, called the ‘bamboo dragonfly’.

The top was an axis with a cord wound round it, and with blades sticking out from the axis and set at an angle. One pulled the cord, and the top went climbing in the air. Sir George Cayley, the father of modern aeronautics, studied the Chinese helicopter top in 1809.

• The helicopter top in China led to nothing but amusement and pleasure, but fourteen hundred years later it was to be one of the key elements in the birth of modern aeronautics in the West.7.
• The Decimal System: China, Fourteenth Century BCE.
• An example of how the Chinese used the decimal system may be seen in an inscription from the thirteenth century BC, in which ‘547 days’ is written ‘Five hundred plus four decades plus seven of days’.

The Chinese wrote with characters instead of an alphabet. When writing with a Western alphabet of more than nine letters, there is a temptation to go on with words like eleven. With Chinese characters, ten is ten-blank and eleven is ten-one (zero was left as a blank space: 405 is ‘four blank five’), This was much easier than inventing a new character for each number (imagine having to memorize an enormous number of characters just to read the date!).

• Having a decimal system from the beginning was a big advantage in making mathematical advances.
• The first evidence of decimals in Europe is in a Spanish manuscript of 976 CE.8.
• The Seismograph: China, Second Century CE.
• China has always been plagued with earthquakes and the government wanted to know where the economy would be interrupted.

A seismograph was developed by the brilliant scientist, mathematician, and inventor Chang Heng (whose works also show he envisaged the earth as a sphere with nine continents and introduced the crisscrossing grid of latitude and longitude). His invention was noted in court records of the later Han Dynasty in 132 CE (the fascinating description is too long to reproduce here.

It can be found on pgs.162-166 of Temple’s book). Modern seismographs only began development in 1848.9. Matches: China, Sixth Century CE. The first version of the match was invented in 577 CE by impoverished court ladies during a military siege. Hard pressed for tinder during the siege, they could otherwise not start fires for cooking, heating, etc.

The matches consisted of little sticks of pinewood impregnated with sulfur. There is no evidence of matches in Europe before 1530.10. Circulation of the Blood: China, Second Century BCE. Most people believe blood circulation was discovered by William Harvey in 1628, but there are other recorded notations dating back to the writings of an Arab of Damascus, al-Nafis (died 1288).

• However, circulation appears discussed in full and complex form in The Yellow Emperor’s Manual of Corporeal Medicine in China by the second century BC.11.
• Paper: China, Second Century BCE.
• Papyrus, the inner bark of the papyrus plant, is not true paper.
• Paper is a sheet of sediment which results from the settling of a layer of disintegrated fibers from a watery solution onto a flat mold.

Once the water is drained away, the deposited layer is removed and dried. The oldest surviving piece of paper in the world is made of hemp fibers, discovered in 1957 in a tomb near Xian, China, and dates from between the years 140 and 87 BCE. The oldest paper with writing on it, also from China, is dated to 110 CE and contains about two dozen characters.

• Paper reached India in the seventh century and West Asia in the eighth.
• The Arabs sold paper to Europeans until manufacture in the West in the twelfth century.12.
• Brandy and Whiskey: China, Seventh Century CE.
• The tribal people of Central Asia discovered ‘frozen-out wine’ in their frigid climate in the third century CE.

In wine that had frozen was a remaining liquid (pure alcohol). Freezing became a test for alcohol content. Distilled wine was known in China by the seventh century. The distillation of alcohol in the West was discovered in Italy in the twelfth century.13.

1. The Kite: China, Fifth/Fourth Century BCE.
2. Two kitemakers, Kungshu P’an who made kites shaped like birds which could fly for up to three days, and Mo Ti (who is said to have spent three years building a special kite) were famous in Chinese traditional stories from as early as the fifth century BCE.
3. Ites were used in wartime as early as 1232 when kites with messages were flown over Mongol lines by the Chinese.

The strings were cut and the kites landed among the Chinese prisoners, inciting them to revolt and escape. Kites fitted with hooks and bait were used for fishing, and kites were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. The kite was first mentioned in Europe in a popular book of marvels and tricks in 1589.14.

1. The rocket and multistaged rockets: China, Eleventh and Twelfth CE Centuries,
2. Around 1150 it crossed someone’s mind to attach a comet-like fireworks to a four foot bamboo stick with an arrowhead and a balancing weight behind the feathers.
3. To make the rockets multi-staged, a secondary set of rockets was attached to the shaft, their fuses lighted as the first rockets burned out.

Rockets are first mentioned in the West in connection with a battle in Italy in 1380, arriving in the wake of Marco Polo. Not all Chinese scientific and technological achievements lie in the remote past. Contemporary scientists include Chen Ning Yang and Tsung Dao Lee (Nobel Physics Prize, 1957), and Choh Hao Li (biochemist, world’s foremost authority on the pituitary gland).

Jack Gloop