HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS

ANCIENT AGES
600 BCE

Food & agriculture

The Chinese develop the art of fumigating houses to rid them of pests.

Materials
Greek potters make several improvements. The potter’s wheel is enlarged and made heavier, so that it
acts as a flywheel. Pottery is shaved on the wheel after the pot has dried to give a finer surface. Greek
sculptors begin to use marble from the islands of Paros and Naxos in carving statues.

Medicine & health

Susruta performs the first cataract operations and plastic surgery. His writings describe diseases that
come to be called malaria, tuberculosis, and diabetes. He mentions the use of hemp (Cannabis) in
inducing anesthesia and is claimed to have observed the relationship of malaria to mosquitoes and of
bubonic plague to rats.

Tools
According to ancient sources, Anacharis the Scythian invents the anchor.

598 BCE

Energy
In 598, the second year of the reign of King Chao of Yen, (China), whale-oil lamps with asbestos wicks
are used. However, this may have been in 308 BCE, as there were two King Chaos of Yen.

585 BCE

Physics Thales of Miletus creates a system explaining matter in which water is the basis of all things.
Matter appears to him to exist in three forms: mist, water, and earth. He considers mist and earth as
forms of water. In the field of astronomy, which he has learned from the Babylonians, Thales claims that
the substance of stars is water.

550 BCE

Communication
Anaximander draws up the first known map of the entire inhabited Earth –– actually only the part
known to the Ionians around this time. He puts the map on a cylinder to reflect the curvature of Earth.

Tools
According to tradition, Anaximander invents the first sundial. In fact, simple sundials existed earlier in
Mesopotamia and Egypt, but probably Anaximander invented a form of astrolabe or sundial that could
be corrected for changes in the season.
530 BCE

Construction
Greek architect and engineer Eupalinus of Megara (Greece) [b. c. 570 BCE] builds an aqueduct and
water-supply system for Megara, although he is much more famous for the water supply system he later
builds on Samos.

Earth science
Greek philosopher Xenophanes [b. Colophon, Ionia (Turkey), c. 570 BCE, d. 480 BCE] speculates that
since fossil seashells are found on tops of mountains, the surface of Earth must have risen and fallen in
the past.

Physics
Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus [b. Miletus (Turkey), c. 570 BCE, d. c. 500 BCE] suggests that
air is the primary substance –– it can be changed into other substances by thinning, forming fire; or
thickening, forming wind, clouds, rain, hail, earth, and rock. He recognizes that the rainbow is a natural
phenomenon rather than a divine one.

MIDDLE AGES

530

Tools
The water-powered flour sifting and shaking machine invented in China is mentioned for the first time;
this device works like a locomotive’s steam engine in reverse, changing rotary motion into the back-and-
forth motion needed for sifting; it is the first known machine capable of doing this.

537

Tools
The Roman general Belisarius [b. c. 505, d. 565] installs water wheels on boats moored on the Tiber
River during a siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths; this type of water wheel will become very common in
European towns during the Middle Ages.

550

Transportation
Liang Emperor Luan’s Book of the Golden Hall Master describes a wind-driven land vehicle built in China
by Kaots’ang Wu-Shu. This wind-driven carriage could, it is claimed, carry 30 people and travel hundreds
of kilometers in a single day. Sails were also applied to wheelbarrows, and wheelbarrows with sails
became a common symbol of Chinese culture in 18th-century Europe.

568

Energy
Women in Northern Ch’i under siege by neighboring kingdoms in China invent matches so they can start
fires for cooking and heating.

615

Energy
Japanese texts mention “burning water” used in lamps, which is thought to refer to petroleum.

724

Buddhist monk I-Xing and Chinese engineer Lyang Lingdzan build a water clock that has an escapement,
the device that causes a clock to tick. The escapement opens and closes a valve, making the flow of
water maintain a more constant rate. The clockwork is used to power various astronomical devices
rather than to indicate the hour.

945

Energy
The Chinese emperor Tian Kiao urges the Chinese to use petroleum for heating instead of wood to
counter deforestation.

1077

Food & agriculture

Europeans reinvent the whiffletree (also known as the whippletree), a way to harness two animals ––
horses in Europe –– to the same cart. The whiffletree had originally been developed for oxen by the
Chinese in the third century.

1220

Materials
The Dictionary of Jean de Garlande [b. 1190, d. 1255] mentions techniques for producing silk thread.