Have you ever wondered what the inventions of medieval times were like? How people did things such as grinding grain? Well, now you will know what it was like. Medieval innovations are fascinating for three reasons. We know about how they did everyday things, what science was like, and how they affect our scientific progress. Windmills are one type of invention. Windmills were brought to Europe in the 12th century by the crusaders. The sails (the things that turned in the wind) were mounted on a horizontal axis. Since it was mounted on a horizontal axis, it used the wind better than a vertical axis.
Upright mills can only turn if turning 90 degrees. The windmills were owned by the “miling smoke” division of the Manor’s charter. Later, windmills were used as forts in war. This is my research on the invention of windmills. The book, Concise History of Science and Invention, states “The development of the compass is closely linked with the understanding of magnetism” (Goddard 81). The compass was invented by Chinese Augurs to create their fortune telling boards. However, it was detected by the Greeks thousands of years ago that lodestone, which contained magnetite (a naturally magnetic substance), had magnetic properties.
The Chinese rubbed lodestone to a needle, and the needle always pointed north. In addition, we discovered with the invention of the compass that the earth had a magnetic field. When the compass points north, it pointed to the magnetic North Pole, which is one of the two most magnetic spots on planet earth. The compass was introduced to Europe in 960 AD. However, It was mentioned first in the book The Dream Pool Essays by Shen Kuo. Early European compasses were made with a magnetic needle put perpendicularly in a straw that then floated upwards in a bowl of water (Goddard 81).
Printing was first introduced in China in 100 A. D. The way they printed was called block printing, which was a wooden block carved with mirrored text. It was then applied with Ink, and pressed firmly onto a piece of paper. This was better than manuscripts, because they were handwritten, and scribes the people who wrote books by hand, usually hired by the rich or monarchs) were human. If they made a mistake, it could then be copied onto another manuscript, and then copied again with possibly more mistakes, and so on. One problem with B Block printing is that one block made only one page, and the number of blocks it took to make a book took up too much space.
In addition, the amount of time it took to carve a block of text took longer than it would to write a page in a book by hand. To fix these problems, Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press, with movable type. He carved individual letters, and he could put the letters together, in words, then sentences, as little blocks with one letter on each. After this, they could put ink onto the individual blocks that were grouped together, and put a sheet of paper on top. Finally, they then pressed the sheet of paper onto the inked letters by the paper, pressed onto the blocks, going under a flat space.
Gunpowder was first mentioned in China in 300 A. D. by Ge Hong, who said it was a concoction of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. Gunpowder was first used for fireworks, then for rockets, which were used as weapons in war. After that, they were used for heavy artillery, which is a large barrel, with a stone or metal ball inside, and when the fire was struck against the string attached to the top, it would burn up, and then fire the round missile at whatever the target was. Yet another medieval invention was the Ballista, which was a HUGE crossbow that would shoot a giant grappling hook at a castle wall.
It was mainly used in sieges, which is when you try to wait someone out when they are inside of some kind of space, like a castle. Or, they would try to break in by getting inside the space and fighting whoever was inside. Ballista would grapple at the top of the walls, and people would climb up the ropes to the top of the walls. These are many of the great inventions that came about in medieval times. The printing press, the magnetic compass, windmills, and gunpowder all affected our modern inventions and way of life. They are all great for lots of the other things. This is my paper on medieval inventions.
