Wilhelm Schickard invents the mechanical calculator
His machine was composed of two sets of technologies: an abacus made of Napier’s bones and a dialed pedometer to perform additions and subtractions.
Technology & innovation
Jacob Nufer of Switzerland performs the first known Cesarean Section birth with both mother and baby surviving
Perhaps the first written record we have of a mother and baby surviving a cesarean section comes from Switzerland in 1500 when sow gelder, Jacob Nufer, performed the operation on his wife. The mother lived and subsequently gave birth normally to five children, including twins. The cesarean baby lived to be 77 years old.
Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. This was a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods.
Gersonides invents the Jacob's staff
In its most basic form, a Jacob’s staff is a stick or pole with length markings; most staffs are much more complicated than that, and usually contain a number of measurement and stabilization features.
Ismail al-Jazari publishes The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices
The Book describes 100 innovative mechanical devices, including the camshaft, some 80 of which are trick vessels of various kinds, along with instructions on how to construct them.
The Chinese of the Song Dynasty invent the fishing reel
A fishing reel is a cylindrical device attached to a fishing rod used in winding and stowing line.
The Chinese of the Song Dynasty invent the fire lance
The fire lance was a very early gunpowder weapon that appeared in 10th century China during the Jin-Song Wars.
The Chinese of the Song Dynasty invent dry docks
A dry dock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform.
Early versions of the Bessemer process for producing steel are invented in East Asia
Economic historian Robert Hartwell writes that the Chinese of the Song Dynasty innovated a “partial decarbonization” method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast.
Bi Sheng of China's Song Dynasty invents movable type
The world’s first movable type printing press technology for printing paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around C.E. 1040 in China during the Northern Song Dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng.