It is difficult to prove when pottery came into being. There are different opinions about the origin of pottery.
Some people speculate that the most primitive container of human life is made of branches, for fire prevention and harmony.
Dense and seamless, the container is often coated with a layer of clay inside and outside. During the use of these containers,
Occasionally, it will be burned, all the branches will be burned, but the clay will not catch fire, not only will it still
Keep it, it will become harder and more useful than before the fire. The accident gave people
Very enlightening. Later, people simply stopped using branches as skeletons and began to pound clay consciously.
Crushed, mixed with water, kneaded to a very soft degree, molded into various shapes, and placed in the sun.
Sun-dried, and finally burned on a bonfire to make primitive pottery.
About now.
1
Thousands of years ago, kilns for firing pottery began to appear in China, becoming the earliest production.
Home of pottery. The invention of pottery is a major breakthrough in technical wood manufacturing. Pottery making technology
The properties of clay are changed, so that the components of clay, such as silica, alumina, calcium carbonate (gài),
Magnesium oxide (měi) and others have undergone a series of chemical changes in the firing process, which makes pottery anticorrosive.
Excellent water resistance. Therefore, pottery has not only new technical significance but also new economic significance.
Here we go again. It enables people to add cooking methods when dealing with food, such as ceramic spinning wheels, ceramic knives and ceramic chips.
Tools such as tools also play an important role in production. Ceramic storage can make food and water.
Easy to store. Therefore, pottery quickly became a necessity for human life and production, especially for settlement.
People who come down to engage in agricultural production cannot do without pottery.
3. The rise of metallurgical chemistry
In the late Neolithic period, people began to use metal instead of stone tools to make tools. second-hand
The most is copper. But this natural resource is limited after all, so smelting gold from ore is produced.
Which belongs to metallurgy. About 3800 BC, copper ore was first smelted.
In 2000, Iran began to convert copper mines.
Stone (malachite) and charcoal are mixed together and heated to obtain metallic copper. Pure copper is soft,
The quality of tools and weapons made with it is not good enough. On this basis, after improvement, it appeared.
bronze ware
From 3000 BC to 2500 BC
In 1820, in addition to smelting copper, tin (x: and) was also refined.
And lead (qiān). Doping tin into pure copper can reduce the melting point of copper to about 800℃
Yeah, that way, it's easier to throw. The alloy of copper and tin is called bronze (sometimes
Lead), high hardness, suitable for manufacturing production tools. Weapons made of bronze are hard and sharp,
The production tools made of bronze are far superior to copper, and there are also copper coins cast in bronze. China is casting.
Great achievements have also been made in the production of bronzes, such as the "Simuwu" tripod in the early Yin Dynasty. It's a gift.
This bronze ware is the largest unearthed in the world. Another example is the chime in the Warring States period, which is an ancient sound.
Great creation in music. Therefore, the appearance of bronzes promoted agriculture, weapons, finance,
The development of art and other aspects has pushed social civilization forward a step.
China, Egypt and India were the first countries to manufacture and use iron in the world, and China was in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Late period (BC
six
There are refined pig iron for casting. At the earliest time, charcoal was used for refining.
Carbon monoxide produced by incomplete combustion of iron and charcoal reduces iron oxide in iron ore to metal.
Iron. Iron is widely used to make plowshares, ironware ■ (a weeding tool), shovels and other agricultural tools and ironware.
Ding and other utensils are of course also used to make weapons. By the eighth century BC
seven
Century, Europe, etc.
After entering the iron age. Because iron is harder than bronze and the raw materials for ironmaking are far richer than copper ore,
In most places, iron has replaced bronze.
4. China's great contributions-gunpowder and papermaking.
Black powder is one of the four great inventions in ancient China. Why is it called "black powder"? This should also start with the raw materials it uses. The three raw materials of gunpowder are sulfur, mirabilite (xiāo) and charcoal. Charcoal is black, so gunpowder is black, which is called black gunpowder. The nature of gunpowder is easy to catch fire, so it can be associated with fire, but how to understand the word "medicine"? It turns out that sulfur and saltpeter were both medicines for treating diseases in ancient times. So black powder can be understood as black medicine that will catch fire. The invention of gunpowder was related to alchemy in the Western Han Dynasty in China. The purpose of alchemy is to seek the medicine of immortality. The raw materials of an alchemist include sulfur and saltpeter. The method of alchemy is to put sulfur and saltpeter into an alchemy furnace and extract them with fire for a long time. In the process of repeated alchemy, there have been fires and explosions again and again. After many experiments, the method of making gunpowder was finally found. Black powder broke away from alchemy after its invention and has been used in the military. Ancient people fought with swords and guns at close range and bows and arrows at a long distance. With black powder, since the Song Dynasty, various new weapons have appeared, such as gunpowder packs fired with bows. There are two kinds of gunpowder packages: fireballs and fire thistles. Fire is used to ignite the gunpowder line, throw the gunpowder package out and kill each other by burning and exploding. Around the 8th century AD, China's alchemy spread to Arabia, and the preparation method of gunpowder also spread to the past, and later spread to Europe. In this way, China's gunpowder became the "ancestor" of modern explosives. This is one of China's great inventions.
Paper is a tool for human beings to preserve knowledge and spread culture, and it is a great contribution of the Chinese nation to human civilization. Before paper made of plant fibers was used, the main methods of spreading characters in ancient China were: engraving on Oracle Bone Inscriptions (tortoise shell, ox bone), the so-called Oracle Bone Inscriptions; Oracle bones were limited in number, and were later carved on bamboo slips or wooden slips. But the number of bamboo slips used in Confucius' The Analects of Confucius can be imagined. In addition, silk woven from silk (bó) can also be used for writing, but it is difficult to produce silk in large quantities. Finally, paper made of plant fibers came into being and has been passed down to this day.