Navigation Ancient Chinese Compass
The invention of the compass made a huge difference to navigation. The first compasses were made of lodestone a naturally magnetized stone of iron in han dynasty china 20 bc 20 ad.
The compass was invented as a divination tool by chinese fortune tellers who used the lodestones to construct their fortune telling boards.
Navigation ancient chinese compass. Chinese compass navigation one of the first recordings of using a compass for navigation was during the northern song dynasty 960 ce 1126 ce. At that time there was frequent maritime trade between the song dynasty and arabia and china s fleets used the compass. From wikipedia the free encyclopedia the compass was invented more than 2000 years ago.
The chinese apparently knew about the powers of magnetism as early as the third millennium b c when historians tell us one army. We find the first use of a magnetic compass in ancient china. The lodestone follows a maternal principle.
The magnetic compass the chinese may have been aware of magnetism since the second millenium bc since houses of the shang dynasty are aligned with magnetic north but the first mention in writing is from the fourth century bc. In the warring states period 206bc 23ad after constant improvement the round compass came into being. Post navigation ancient chinese civilization leave a reply cancel reply your email address will not be published.
The earliest mention of a compass and its use appears in the book of the devil valley master. Losing direction would lead to the loss of ships and lives. These compasses were made by floating a magnetized needle in water.
In the song dynasty 960 1279 the compass found application in navigation. The compass was later used for navigation during the chinese song dynasty 960 1279 ad as described by shen kuo. Their understanding was not total since they thought that there were north pointers and south pointers.
Four great inventions of ancient china compass early in the spring and autumn period 770 476bc while mining ores and melting copper and iron chinese people chanced upon a natural magnetite that attracted iron and pointed fixedly north. Its author notes that in addition to its main purpose the compass or south pointer as the chinese called it could be carried with jade hunters to prevent them from getting lost during their journeys. Primarily the compass was used for geomancy for a long time before it was used for navigation ancient chinese alchemists realized that the magnetite ore would point towards a magnetic north.
The greatest advance in navigation came with the compass. Required fields are marked comment name email website save my name email and website in this. The needle could move freely in the water and point to the earth s magnetic poles no matter the movement from the ship or boat.
