Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1870-01-06
Early Inventions of the Chi
mege.

ASSCe
Other nations have outstripped the
Chinese in the career of material inn
provement, but to them belongs the
honor of having led the way in many
of the most remarkable inventions,
and of anticipating us in the posses
sion of some of those arts which con-
stitute the boast of our modern civili-
zatiOn. We shall briefly notice few
of those discoveries, by which they
have established a claim to our respect
and gratitude. Tea deserves to head
the list, as a substantial contribution,
to human comfort, and the leading
staple of an immense cOmmerse 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 of the, west
about two centuries ago, as an uncer-
tain venture The elegant ware in
which our tea is served, preserves in
name the evidence of its Chinese orr
gin. "China-ware," came originally
from China; and the name of ''pOrce-
lain,n given to it by the early POrtu-
guese merchants, may be taken as
proof that nothing of the kind was at
that time manufactured in Europe.
They called pOrceLLdnd, because they
supposed it to be composition of egg
shells, fish glue and scales. The silks
that glisten in our drawi1g-rOOms and
rustic on our sidewalks, if not import
ed directly from China in the woven
fabric or 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 Yuen-
fie, B. c. 2637. Gunpowder, which
has not only revOlutiOniZed the art Of
war, but proved a potent auxiliary in
the arts of peace, literally removing
mountains from the pathway of hui
man 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. 1910; but he speaks of it as
already known earlier. The current
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 transmitted-in a 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
Indebtedness to the Chinese is for the
discovery of America. On the al
lodged voyage of a party of Buddhist
priests to the shores of Mexico we lay
no stress but it is not difficult 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 China which, like q mag
net, attracted him to the westward !;
and it was the magnetic needle, which
originated among the Chinese, that
| directed his adventurous course.
AS to that mysterious instrument
which has unlocked to us the treas
ures of the ocean, and proved itself
the eye of commerce, its origin is GER
tainly not due to the Neapolitan Fla
VIC Gioja, who is reputed to have in
vented it in A. D. 1902. The French,
the Swedes, and the Syrians all pos.
| sessed it before that date and there is
unGuestiOnable evidence that the Chi
nese had been acquainted with it for
more than two thousand four hun
dred years. The Chinese first en-
plOyed the mariners compass on land,
as we may infer from the name by
which they describe it; and 1T the
present day it is still the custom for a
mandarin to carry one in his carriage
or sedan-chair, though he may not be
going beyond the gates of his native
city, 1t is inconceivable that the Po-
les and other medieval Travellers
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
civilization than even steam and cleo
tricity, there are strong reasons for
/ ascribing to Chinese origin. The for
-mer they invented in the first centu-
ry, and the latter at least eight hun
dred years before the time of Guten-
berg and Faust.
InOculatiOn, which prior to the great
discovery Of Jenner, was regarded as
the best protection against the horrors
of smallpox, was practiced in China
at very early period, and probably
found its way TO Europe by thesame
secret channels as those other arts
whose footsteps are difficult to trace.
| Western EurODe obtained il of the