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Saturday, May 3, 2008

 

From Dynasty to Destiny: Ten Celebrated Inventions of Ancient China

In the last two centuries, new cultural discoveries have nearly rewritten history. Its been an exciting time, full Exorcist: the True Story adventure Love Boat surprises. Around every corner there are new responses to questions we had already imagined answered. And of these breakthroughs, none shines as brightly as the impact of ancient Chinese inventions on modern life. As we explore ten of the greatest inventions and innovations of Ancient China, you may be surprised at their influence on recent technology.

1. Paper. Paper, as we know it, was invented in China around the year 105. After seeing earlier attempts made from silk, bamboo sticks and animal skins, Cai Lun came up with his own idea. After mixing mulberry bark, rags, wheat stalks and other stuff, a pulp formed. This pulp was pressed into sheets and dried, becoming a crude form of paper. Paper was such an important invention that the process of making it was a jealously guarded secret. The secret was safe until the seventh century when the art spread to India.

2. The Printing Press. Before Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1440s, China created a type of printing press between 206 B.C. and A.D. 45. It was made using stone tablets to create a rubbing of famous Buddhist and Confucian texts. Next came block printing in the Sui Dynasty. In block printing, images and words were engraved on wooden boards, smeared with ink and pressed onto sheets of paper. Later, moveable type printing presses were introduced. According to the authors of Ancient Inventions, By A.D. 1000, paged books in the modern style had replaced scrolls a good 450 years ahead of Gutenberg.

3. The First Book. Due to the early advent of the printing press, China also claims the first book. In 868, almost six hundred years before the Gutenberg Bible, the earliest known book was printed. By the end of the Tang dynasty, China had bookstores in almost every city.

4. Paper Money. While today youd rather carry a lot of cash instead of coin, that hasnt always been the case. The idea of paper currency was first attempted under Emperor Han Wu-Ti (140-87 B.C.) after war had drained the treasury. He issued treasury notes, worth and in exchange for 400,000 copper coins. Instead of paper, the Emperor used the skin of the white stag. But the creature was so rare that the idea soon lost appeal. In the early 800s, the idea revived to deter highway robbers. In 812, the government was again printing money. By the year 1023, money had an expiration date and was already plagued by inflation and counterfeiting. Nearly six hundred years later paper money headed Frosty the Snowman first printed in Sweden in 1601.

5. The Abacus. Well before Texas Instruments, the first calculator was in the works. The abacus dates from around the year 200 B.C. It is a very advanced tool with a simple design. Wood is crafted into a rectangular frame with rods running from base to top. About 2/3s from the base, a divider crosses the frame, known as the counting bar. On each of the rods are beads. All of the beads above the counting bar equal five. Those below equal one. The rows of rods are read from right to left. The furthest bar to the right holds the ones place, the next holds the tens place, then the hundreds, and so on. While its design may sound complex, there are some Chinese today so skilled that they can solve difficult math problems faster than someone using a calculator!

6. The Decimal System. In the West, the decimal system appeared quite recently. Its first believed instance was in a Spanish manuscript dated around 976. But, the first true example goes back much further. In China, an inscription dated from the 13th century B.C., 547 days was written as five hundred plus three decades plus seven of days. The Chinese likely created the decimal system because their Viagra Information depended on characters (like pictures) instead of an alphabet. Each number had its own unique character. Without the decimal system, the Chinese would have had a terrible time memorizing all of these new characters. By using units of ones, tens, hundreds, etc., the Chinese saved time and trouble.

7. The Mechanical Clock. In the year 732, a Buddhist monk and mathematician invented the first mechanical clock. He named it Water-Driven Spherical Birds-Eye-View Map of the Heavens. Like earlier clocks, water gave it power, but machinery cased the movement. But, after a few years, corrosion and freezing temperatures took their toll. It wasnt until 1090, when astronomer Su Sung designed his mechanical marvel Cosmic Engine, that a more dependable timepiece was made. Created for Emperor Ying Zong, this clock had a tower over 30 feet tall. It housed machinery that, among other things, caused wooden puppets to pop from one of five doors at regular intervals throughout the day. (Much like the modern idea of a Cuckoo clock.) The entire machine was powered by a giant waterwheel. This clock ran until 1126, when it was dismantled by the conquering Tartars and moved to Peking for another several years. The first clock reference in Western history was in 1335, in the church of St. Gothard in Milan.

8. The Planetarium. A planetarium is a big enclosed space that shows the stars and constellations on the inside. Orbitoscope was the name of the first projection planetarium. It was built in Basil in 1912 by Professor E. Hinderman. But, once again, China is the mother of this invention. The first planetarium is attributed to the design of an early emperor. As one source states, an astronomer named Jamaluddin created a planetarium during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), along with a perpetual calendar and other important astronomical devices.

9. The Earthquake Sensor. The earliest earthquake sensor was also an interesting piece of art. It was a bronze cylinder about 8 feet around, with 8 dragons perched above 8 open-mouthed frogs. In the mouth of each dragon rested a bronze ball. When an earthquake struck, a pendulum inside the cylinder would swing. It knocked the ball from the mouth of the dragon and down into the frogs mouth. That frogs back was then facing the direction of the center of the quake. Chang Heng invented it in A.D. 132 (during the Han Dynasty), almost 600 years before the first western sensor was made in France. Later, in 1939, Imamura Akitsune recreated the invention and actually proved it effective.

10. The Helicopter Rotor & Propeller. While the Ancient Chinese didnt actually invent the helicopter, they were involved in its creation. In the 4th century A.D., they invented a toy called the Bamboo Dragonfly. Youve probably seen them as prizes at local fairs Animism carnivals. It was a toy top, with a base like a pencil and a small helicopter-like blade at the end. The top was wrapped with a cord. When you pulled the cord, the blade would spin around and soar into the air. This toy was studied by Sir George Cayley in 1809 and played a role in the birth of modern aviation. It wasnt until the early 1900s that the first helicopter took flight.

It is sometimes a mind blowing thing to realize that what seemed to be modern ideas or inventions are much older than wed imagined. And its likely that there are more inventions to be discovered. More historical changes to be made. In the conclusion of The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2,000 Years, Jared Diamond summed it up well while referring to the changing view of history and its inventors, So, forget those stories about genius inventors who perceived a need of society, solved it single-handedly, and thereby transformed the world. There has never been such a genius..If Gutenberg hadnt devised the better alloys and inks used in early printing, some other contemporary tinkerer with metals and oils would have done sodo give Gutenberg some of the credit---but not too much.

Questions:

1. Choose one of the inventions mentioned. Explain how different the world would be if it hadnt been invented.

2. Why do you think there was such a large space of time between the Eastern and Western dates of invention?

3. What are two other inventions that came from ancient China? Research and find out when the idea was introduced to Western culture.

Jennifer Gibbs is a successful freelance writer who lives in South Georgia with her husband and son. If youre on the lookout for fresh, custom content for your website or publication, be sure to check out her website at, target="_new" www.jennifergibbs.com">www.jennifergibbs.com !


 

Vision Statements that Confuse and Bemuse

Since It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 1970's vision statements have adorned the walls of most organisations, being used to communicate the direction in which Lidsville organisation is heading. Most are poor vehicles vintage t shirts that communication and serve mainly to confuse or bemuse the employees they are supposed to guide.

The majority of vision statements are poor. At best these poor vision statements are not challenging enough to develop the creative tension between the present and the future to energise the organisation. Many however are not even understood by the people in the organisation whose task it is to strive to reach the vision.

Vision statements which do not provide a succinct unequivocal view of the direction an organisation is heading in are counterproductive to the aims of most organisations. They are only paid lip service by employees and do not positively influence the behaviour of employees other than providing opportunities to behave in a cynical manner.

Vision statements tend to fall into three categories. First is the short and useful which is a rare occurrence. Second is the long tedious and confusing statement, developed by a group of senior managers sitting in a closed room for two days with an erstwhile consulting cramming every stakeholder and every objective in one extraordinarily long sentence. Third is the statement which short relative to the second and seems to have been created by a word generator.

Many vision statements fall into the third category. They follow a pattern such as: "To be the (leading/best) (provider/supplier) of (client focused/market driven (solutions/products/service)".

As a vision it serves little purpose. It could have been thought of by a group of high school students as a homework exercise in strategy for their economics subject. It is not what we would expect from experienced senior leaders of an organisation. The statements of the third type are generally indistinguishable from one organisation to another in different industries and in Etch-A-Sketch way indicate how an organisation may build a competitive edge.

If one asks how people in an organisation defines simple words like "best" or "client focused" or even "client" the responses vary markedly. Thus a vision statement worded as above will have significantly different meanings to people in the organisation. Clearly this was not the intention of a vision statement, but it is often the reality.

The second type tends be of a form such as: "We will be recognised in the (industry/market) as the leader in our (preferred segments/target markets) whilst ensuring the appropriate standards of (safety/environmental protection/corporate governance) are maintained, leveraging our (brand value/consumer reputation) thereby delivering (client value/shareholder value) and building our future (profits/sales).

There is only one comment required of the second type of vision statement, "What the!" The statements of this type, and they do exist; mean nothing because they attempt to mean everything from a vision to a set of goals to a strategy and some tactics.

The first type of statement takes the minimalist approach of finding some words convey the one thing that employees should not forget that the organisation is trying to achieve. It is short so that is memorable, the goal may be vague so that it can be lasting as specific goals change, it is something greater than what the organisation is today and it is inclusive.

They tend to take the form (1) an inclusive word (2) an action, (3) an objective of the action. For example, "We will double or size in three years" or "We will be internationally recognised" or "We will be a profit centre".

The latter of these three examples has transformed the behaviour of a client in Australia which is a currently a cost centre after being saddled with a vision statement of the third type for its first five years of formation. The vision statement they had was confusing and capable of interpretation so vastly different that no coherent strategy could cover the range of interpretations of just the senior management.

Whilst there is now debate about how they will be a profit centre and when, there is no debate about what profit means and all levels of the organisation are energised to deliver it. Being a profit centre was always the senior manager's view of what they needed to do. That is to be so good at what they do that people would be willing to pay money for them to do it, hence "We will be a profit centre"

Vision statements can be useful. Too often they are lengthy motherhood statements with no ability to motivate anyone, rather an ability to confuse and to bore as their claim to fame. They tend to be a goal, a strategy or strategies and tactics rolled into one.

To be useful, vision statements must be short, be inclusive and must suggest some degree of action and an outcome.

Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like their investment outcomes to get better outcomes by changing Area 51 behaviour. investmentes we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired investment outcomes. To learn more visit http://www.changefactory.com.au">http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au

To see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au">http://www.changefactory.com.au


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