The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-10-23
Early Inventions of the Chinese,

this city their preying ground.
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Early Inventions of the Chinese.
Other nations have outstripped the Chin
csc in the career of material Improvement,
but to them belongs the honor of having
led the way in many of the most remarka-
BILE inventions, and of anticipating us in the
possession of some of those arts which con-
| stitute the boast of our modern civilization.
We shall briefly notice a few of those dis
coveries by which they have established
| claim to our respect and gratitude. Tea
deserves to head the list, as a substantial
contribution to human comfort, and lead
ing staple of an immense commerce that
has resulted in drawing China out of her
ancient seclusion. Discovered by the
Chinese about A. D. 315, it was introduced
to the people ofthe West about two centur-
les ago as an uncertain venture. The ele-
CANT ware in which our tea is served pre-
serves in its name the evidence of it's
Chinese origin. "China-ware came Or
iginally from China; and the name of
porcelain" given to it by the early Por-
tuguese merchants, may be taken as proof
that nothing of the kind was at that time
manufactured in Europe. They call it
porcellana, because they supposed it to be
composition of egg-shells f1sh-glue, and
scales. The silks that glisten in our draw
ing-rooms and rustic on our sidewalks, if
not imported directly from China in the
woven fabric OF the raw material, remind
us of an obligation of an older date. 1t
was the Chinese who first learned to rear
the insect spinner and to weave its shining
web-an art which they ascribe to their
famous empress Yuenfei, B. C. 2637. Gun
powder, which has not only revolutionized
the art of war, but proved a potent auxil-
larry in the arts of peace, literally removing
mountains from the pathway OF human
progress, was discovered by the Chinese
many centuries before it was known in the
West. Roger Bacon was acquainted with
its composition in A. d. 1870; but he speaks
oft as already known earlier. The cur
rent opinion refers it to the Arabs, but
there is reason to believe that they were
not authors of the invention, but merely
the channel through which it was trans
mitted-in word, that it found its way
from the remote East along with the stream
of Oriental commerce.
The heaviest item in the bill of our in
debtedness to the Chimes is for the discov-
cry of America. On the alleged voyage of
party of Buddhist priests to the shores of
Mexico we lay no stress; but it is not diff
ficult to show that the discovery of the
New World by christopher Columbus was
directly due to the influence of China
China supplied at once the motive for his
voyage and the instrument by which it was
effected. 1t was the wealth of Chica which,
like magnet attracted him to the west
ward; and it was the magnetic needle,
which originated among the Chinese, that
directed his adventurous course.
AS to that my sterious instrument which
has unlocked to us the treasures of the
ocean, and proved itself the eye of COM
merce, its origin is certainly not due to the
Neapolitan Flavio Gioja who is reputed to
have inventad it in A. D. 1902. The French
the Swedes, and the Syrians all possessed
it before that date; and there is unques-
tionable evidence that the Chinese had then
been acquainted with it for more than two
thousand four hundred years. The Chinese
first employed the mariners compass on
land, as we may infer from the name by
which they describe it; and at the present
day it is still the custom for mandarin to
carry one i'll his carriage OF sedan-chair,
though he may not be going beyond the
gates of his native city. 1t is inconceiva-
BILE that the Poles and other medieval tray
elers should have returned from China
across the deserts of Central Asia without
providing themselves with such an unerring
guide.
Paper-making and printing, two arts
more characteristic of our modern civiliZa-
ton than even steam and electricity, there
arc strong reasons for ascribng to Chi
nese origin. The former they invented in
the first century, and the lotter at least
eight hundred years before the time of Gut
cnberg and Faust.
incubation, which, prior to the great
discovery of Jenner, was regarded as the
best protection against the horrors of the
smallpox was practiced i'll China at very
early period, and probably found its way
to Europe by the same secret channels as
those other arts whose footsteps are so
difficult to trace. Western Europe obtain
ed it from the Turks, Lady Mary Wortley
Montague having made the first expert
ment of its efficacy by inoculating her son
while residing at Constantinople.
Like the modern Greeks, the Chinese of
the present day, content with the legacy of
the past, have ceased to invent; but with
out doubt they were once among the most
ingenious and original of the inhabitants of
the earth.
The Chinese have not gone back, and
that is saying great deal in their favor;
but in respect to material progress, for ages
they have made no advancement. Four
centuries ago they were in advance of Euro
peans in everything that contributes to the
comfort or luxury of civilized life; but
where are they now? Authors of the COM
pass, they creep from headland to headland
in coasting voyages, never venturing to
cross the ocean or to trust themselves for
many days out OF sight of the shore. Dis
coveries of gunpowder, they supply the
world with tire-crackers, while their sol
diers fight with bow and arrows, wooden
spears, aud match-locks. Inventors of
printing, they have not yet advanced to
the use of metallic type and the power
press, but continue to engrave each page on
a block of wood and to print it off by the
use of a brush. Sufficiently versed in as
tronomy to calculate eclipses two thousand
years before the Christian era, they remain
to this hour in the letters of judicial astrol-
ogy; and among the earliest to make adj
vances in chemical discovery, they are still
under the full sway of alchemy and magic.