Medieval Inventions

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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 "milling smoke" division of the Manor 's charter. Later, windmills …show more content…

The magnetic compass was created 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 magnetic compass that the earth had a magnetic field. When the magnetic compass points north, it pointed to the magnetic North Pole, which is one of the two most magnetic spots on planet earth.

The magnetic compass were introduced to Europe in 960 AD. However, It was mentioned first in the book The Dream Pool Essays by Shen Kuo. Early European magnetic

compasses were made with a magnetized 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