“Ancient China Inventor’s Paradise: Told in first person perspective”
By: Tanner M.
U.S.A.

Fireworks, an incredible invention made by accident by a chief: me. My name is Li Tian, the proud inventor of fireworks. Every April 18, the Chinese commemorate me with fireworks. However, originally the Chinese used fireworks against the Mongol warriors as its first use. Did you know that the first fireworks were made from sharp and strong bamboo to kill their opponents?

Out of all the inventions from ancient China, the compass is the most important invention of all ancient inventions. It was made during the Han Dynasty and was made from lodestone, a naturally magnetic ore. It was spoon shaped and put on a bronze disk and the lodestone always pointed north.

While the invention of the compass helped people know the way, the next helped them in warfare, and has, for thousands of years and still does in many inventions. It’s used in canons, guns, and my inventions: fireworks. This invention is very important when it comes to warfare. This invention is very important when it comes to warfare. This invention is gun powder which is highly flammable. It was invented in China, probably during the 1000’s. Gunpowder is composed of about 75% altpeter (potassium nitrate), 15% powdered charcoal, and 10% sulfur. The Chinese used gunpowder to make fireworks and for signal flares. Gunpowder was also used in medicine and in alchemy (the art of turning worthless things into gold).

The Chinese used gunpowder to use in weapons (which they called fire arrows). Fire rockets were made by filling capped bamboo tubes with gunpowder and iron bits (shrapnel). These lethal weapons were attached to an arrow, lit, and shot by a bow. Those were the first solid rockets. The Chinese used them against the Mongols.

This next invention was made famous by Benjamin Franklin’s experiment with lightning. I will give you a hint: he tied a key around it! A kite! The kite was invented roughly 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. It is a mystery where it was invented, but is probably ancient China. Some people say that the original kite was just a large leaf and string.

The kite is still an invention that entertains people to this day just like our next invention. However, this next invention is the key to learning in most of the worlds’ countries and what scripts are written on-paper. Paper is a very good invention that we really need for keeping documents and notes. Our word paper comes from the word “papyrus.” Paper is made from wood pulp or other fibrous material. Paper is made by grinding plant material into a pulp, forming it into thing sheets, and drying it into a form. This process was invented in AD 105 by Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese official and a member of the Chinese imperial court, about 2,000 years ago; he used to use the waste of silk production. Early Chinese paper was made from the bark of the mulberry tree and other plant fibers.

The Chinese are the main cause of many inventions we use today; however, we don’t notice that these inventions that seem so modern were invented thousands of years ago. One of these inventions that we think is so modern but not actually is the umbrella. The earliest umbrellas were made to shade the user from the sun. Umbrellas were used as early as 4,000 years ago in ancient Assyria, China, Egypt, and Greece. The Chinese were probably the first to waterproof the umbrella for use in the rain; they used wax and lacquer to repel the rain. Many people gradually improved it which has led to the modern umbrella.

Ancient China is a paradise for inventors of some of the world’s most famous products like mine, the firework. It is a place where old is now modern and how we’ve improved things to our own needs. It’s done more than help us. It’s made our Stock Market, our economy, even our cities by some of the world’s oldest inventions. The Chinese are incredibly smart and have very good imaginations, which allowed them to make these sorts of wonderful things that have shaped our lives and advance our government and our rights. For example, how could Abraham Lincoln write the Emancipation Proclamation without paper or have the people stay dry using umbrellas? Even though this book highlights some of China’s most famous inventions, there are thousands or even millions more inventions made by the ancient Chinese. Some are famous like paper and the kite, while others are not so famous, like my invention, the bamboo fireworks and leaf kite.

The Chinese were incredible and were important, even in the urban life that we live. We thank them and hope more people in the future and more people turn to be like that, incredible inventors.

“Ancient China.” Enchantedlearning.com. Retrieved on January 27, 2013.

“Inventions from Ancient China.” BBC.co.uk/ahitoryoftheworld/  February 5, 2013.