hypocrisy at its finest -- LiveWire Teen Forums

Paper
Often the allegation is heard that paper was invented in China or Egypt. In neither of these two civilizations was paper used: in China a textile based parchment was used, and in Egypt bound reeds - papyrus - was made into parchment. The very earliest documents in Europe were also captured on material parchment - but there is no evidence that this development was transmitted from the East to Europe.

In Europe, the process to make a textile thin enough to be comfortably used, meant a laborious process of pulping thicker scraps of textiles by hand. This process was revolutionized in 1798 by the French scientist Nicholas Louis Robert, who invented the first mechanical paper pulping machine. The raw material was still crude textile. Robert's machine was improved by the British stationers and brothers Henry Fourdrinier and Sealy Fourdrinier, who in 1803, produced the first of the machines that bear their name.

Only in 1840, was the process of producing paper from ground wood developed in Europe, and the idea of adding chemicals only took place in 1850, creating the modern paper making process which has lasted to this day.

In 1850, the German Friedrich Gottlob Keller devised the first method of making paper from wood pulp. In 1852, the Englishman Hugh Burgess, improved upon the process by mixing the wood pulp with chemicals, and in 1867, the American chemist C.B. Tilghman, started adding sulfites during the pulping process. Finally, as late as 1879, the Swede C.F. Dahl, perfected the use of wood by adding yet another chemical.

Paper is thus purely an European invention, despite popular belief to the contrary.

Printing
As with paper, the allegation is often heard that printing was invented in China. This is also untrue: in China a simple system of pattern inking had been developed in which a strip of material was lain against a water based painted picture. This only worked for very basic patterns and was consequently was not widespread. There is also no evidence that this technique was ever exported anywhere as it had virtually no applications.

In Europe, printing was developed entirely independently after long thought on how to speed up the process of book copying: Johann Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, invented the technical aspects of printing in 1450. Basing the design of his machine on a wine press, Gutenburg developed the use of raised and movable type and from the start used oil based paints.

The invention of the printing press revolutionized the spread of knowledge: a printing press was built in Venice in 1469, and the city had 417 printers by 1500. In 1476, a printing press was developed in England by William Caxton; in 1539, the Spaniard Juan Pablos set up an imported press in Mexico City, Mexico. Stephen Day built the first printing press in North America at Massachusetts Bay in 1628, and helped establish the Cambridge Press.

By the end of the 1400's, 1,000 new books were being published per year by Europe's book printers. By 1815, the number had climbed to 20,000 per year.

The Non-white world's wealthiest city, Constantinople, under the Ottoman Turks, did not acquire its first printing press until the year 1726, and by 1815, the grand total of all the books published in Constantinople in the preceding 89 years, was only 63 titles.

Gunpowder
The first written reference to gunpowder - and how to make it - appears in the writings of the 13th century English monk Roger Bacon, belying the oft held theory that it was developed in China and exported to Europe. In fact, the Chinese has what they called "fire powder" - an inflammable chemical which they used in bamboo tubes to make clay pellet firing 'rockets."

A 14th Century German monk, Berthold Schwarz, was the first person to use gunpowder to fire a substantial projectile, and can rightly be given the title of inventor of the firearm. Schwarz was preparing gunpowder in a closed vessel called an apothecary's mortar when the mixture ignited and blew the pestle from the mortar. The use of "mortar" for a type of ordnance commemorates this occasion.

The oldest Chinese canon dates from 1332, whereas in Europe, the oldest cannon found so far dates from 1300, which was made in Sweden. European cannon are also depicted in a 1326 manuscript on war by Walter de Millimete of England.

"Gunnis cum telar" - guns with handles - showed up in the 1350s, marking the emergence of the personal firearm. Gunpowder factories had been established in England and Germany in 1334 and 1340 respectively.

Compass
Damn this one's a bit harder.

American astronomer John Carlson has suggested that "the Olmec may have discovered and used the geomagnetic lodestone compass earlier than 1000 BC". If true, this "predates the Chinese discovery of the geomagnetic lodestone compass by more than a millennium"

There have been various arguments put forward concerning whether or not the European compass was an independent invention.

The thing about this was that whites didn't invent the compass since they didn't need it. They used celestial bodies and other methods when on land.

But, I guess I can give credit to the Chinese, even though it's a debate that China's invention influenced the Europeans.

Well, at least one of the four inventions can be believed...

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"One of the Germans... would frequently snatch a child from the
woman's arms and... tear the child in half... Such incidents...
occurred all the time." - A Year in Treblinka, Yankel Wiernik,
Treblinka's "most authoritative eyewitness"

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