Re: Inventions

Donald Hosford wrote:
> 
> Now I must "weigh" in...according to this page, the chinese didn't
> invent the magnetic compass...they invented the "South Pointing
> Chariot".  They also state that nowhere does the chinese documentation
> ever discribe a "magnetic" compass.  Appairantly all discriptions
> refer the the mechanical variety.

hmm... my research contradicts that.

> An ingenus mechanical device that always points in the same
> direction.  As you pull it along, the gears inside make the little
> figure on top turn left and right opposite to the way the chariot was
> turned.  (Really cool!  Check it out!)

It really is. I saw a reproduction in the Vancouver Science centre when
they were showing 7000 Years of Chinese Inoovation.

> This gizmo would be compleatly useless at sea.  If they didn't invent
> the magnetic compass, where did they get it from?
> 
> Sorry to break a bubble...:-)

Actually I'll have to dissagree here. Magnetic compasses were reported
in china in 300 BC aprox. At least according to the books that I have.