Inventions Which Helped Develop Trade Quiz

Answer: Glue

Quite possibly, this took place when logs were first burned on small fires to keep warm. A sticky black substance was part of the residue on the logs when the flames died down. These early manufactured tools, using this simple glue, were discovered millennia later by modern archaeologists working in central Italy. Unfortunately the date of this find is not given.

Another 100,000 years further down the track saw early man working with compound glues made from plant gum mixed with other substances. By 6,000 BC, manufactured glue was used in ancient Babylon when creating statues, in Egypt to make objects such as furniture, and in the Americas to make small canoes. Medieval Europe saw decorative objects being fixed to parchments with glue created from egg white, and by the 1800s AD, Holland took the manufacture of glue into the economic trading market with the establishment of the world's first glue factory.

Answer: Cloth

It's quite astounding to think that primitive man from 36,000 years ago had developed the ability to grow plants, which, when harvested, were then woven into a material that could be worn on the body. The woven fibres which were discovered in a cave in the Caucasus region of Georgia, were made from flax.

Other materials which were woven into materials over time included those from the fleece of various animals, such as sheep or alpacas. Weaving of materials developed onwards from these early beginnings, until, by the fifteenth century AD, the manufacture of textiles had become the largest single industry in Europe. Today materials are made from any source the mind of man can conceive, and with all the state of art electronic devices under the sun to carry out the task. Yet the very same method of weaving, which began all that time ago in a cave in Georgia, continues to be basic to many of them.

Answer: Oars

Once again, the amazing Chinese, as with many other early inventions, appear to be the first to come up with the idea of the rowing oar. Discoveries of these were found in the Zhejiang province, at a place referred to as the Himudu culture site, in 1973. Scientists have dated the finds unearthed within back to approximately 5,000 BC. By 4,000 BC, the use of the rowing oar had spread to Japan, and from there, to the rest of the world. This enabled the spread of trade between local regions, and then nations. Initially, small rowed vessels carried only small quantities of goods. However, sails were later added to ship design, leading to oars eventually being replaced by sails altogether. Much larger ships were then able to carry far greater amounts of trading goods over far greater expanses of the world.

Originally made of a long flat wooden shaft, the oar developed from its early beginnings to have a flat slightly curved blade at its end to enable the rower to plunge it into water faster and with more efficiency and speed. An interesting tradition that we find today with various rowing competitions is that, as well as a traditional cup or trophy being awarded at the conclusion of most of these races, the winning club to whom the rowers belong is later given what is known as a trophy oar. This is an oar decorated with the winning club's colours and crest, and with details of the race professionally written on the blade of the oar.

Answer: Papyrus

Paper was created in China in aproximately the 2nd century AD. However, the writing material papyrus was created in Egypt in 3,000 BC. The plant papyrus is a tall grass or rush. Apart from its use in the early form of paper, it was also used to make an amazing array of household, working and trading goods. These included boats, mattresses, sandals, the roof of houses, baskets, mats and so forth. When it was used to make early writing material, only the stem of this plant was used. The outer part was removed and the inner part cut into thin strips about sixteen inches long. These were put side by side in a container, with each end slightly overlapping the one before. Another layer of same was then placed on top of these at right angles to the first layer. Covered with water until it began to break up, then drained, hammered into one united sheet, dried, and lightly polished, writing material was thus created. This allowed the keeping of records, transactions, and history and anything else that needed to be recorded in written form. Writing was done on the lengthwise sides, and went up and down following the width of each initial strip of the papyrus pulp.

Papyrus use, which spread over a wide area of Europe, was eventually replaced by parchment and vellum there. This was made from animal skins, and seems odd considering the fact that animals had to be killed for its manufacture - an expensive cost - whereas papyrus was a renewable resource. The reason for this however was that papyrus didn't stand up to well in the moister climate on the European continent. Horribly and shockingly so, the papyrus plant became extinct in Egypt for many years, but thankfully was revived with the reintroduction of the plants by France in 1872.

Answer: Foresail

This new invention came into being by the Etruscan people in early Italy. It was set between the main central sail and the bow of the vessel. Its original purpose appeared to be for steering the ship, rather than adding to its speed. By the late Middle Ages, as ships grew larger and more cargo was transported on them, more sails were added to their design until eventually the full beauty of these ships, allowing mass movement of people and trading goods, were seen all over the world. And beautiful, graceful queens of the seven seas they were.

It somehow seems a shame that such poetry and grace had to be finally replaced with fuel powered ships by modern man.

Answer: Crane

The crane made its appearance in the fifth century BC in Ancient Greece. Very simple machines at first, these were initially powered by people or animals. Later the treadmill would be added to their capability, which enabled the cranes to lift much heavier loads. Watermills and windmills were also sometimes used to power cranes. Constructions of mighty buildings such as the beautiful Parthenon were built with the aid of the humble crane.

When the Romans came along, spreading their armies, people and goods all over the western world, building construction went into hyperdrive under this energetic and ambitious people.

By then, cranes consisted of a jib, winch, rope and three pulleys, and their design developed further from that time in history. Just as a comparison of the amazing difference the crane made to the building progress of mankind, it took approximately sixty men to move a three ton block of stone up an incline in the days of pyramid building in Ancient Egypt. That worked out an average of 100 lbs per man.

In the full bloom of the Roman Empire, a crane operated by one man alone could lift a piece of stone weighing 6,600 lbs sixty times higher than that. Amazing, isn't it?

Answer: Waterlock

The waterlock or canal lock came into being during the reign of Ptolemy II during the Hellenistic period in Egyptian history. This era commenced with the death of Alexander the Great (Ptolemy I was one of his Macedonial generals) in 323 BC, and ended with Cleopatra's death at her own hands in 30 BC.

A lock enables ships and barges etc to be raised and lowered to and from different levels of water, or across stretches of river that can't be navigated normally, so that the one vessel can continue on its journey to its destination without the goods it contains, or the passengers therein, having to be transported to another boat on a different level. As it sails into one enclosure, large gates are locked into place around it. The water is then either drained from, or filled further into that level, so that the vessel is either lowered or raised by this action. When that level has been reached, the locks are then opened again, and the vessel proceeds on its way. At first only very simple in their design, locks improved over the centuries until many locks in the same spot could raise or lower ships to astonishing differences in water levels. The difference this made to trade and tranportation all over the world proved to be astonishing.

Today we have such mighty edifices as the Panama Canal, which links the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in Central America, and which employs these very same methods that began all that time ago in the land of Egypt. The early history of canals linking the Nile and the Red Sea in that country itself makes very interesting reading. The Suez Canal was not the first time this was achieved by any means.

Answer: Waterwheel

Waterwheels work by converting any readily available source of flowing water into the power required to turn machines. The water which falls onto each blade turns the gears which connect to other machinery inside the buildings next to them. They're quite an amazing inventions really, but yet so simple in design. Simpler versions of same were used in some parts of the world to shift water from one location into another, into fields of agricultural produce that needed watering, for example.

More intricate wheels turned machinery to perhaps grind wheat into flour, or in any building where energy was needed to turn machines, or to move boats along the water in early navigation improvements, or even to measure time and distance.

The difference this device made to increased production of goods, and in manual labour saving costs, was extremely impressive. Waterwheels were eventually seen all over the known world in industrial undertakings, and even well into the 20th century, before eventually being replaced by even more efficient means of energy production.

Answer: Forge

Also known as a bloomery or a fining forge, this process involved melting pig iron at high temperatures until it became a liquid. Carbon was then removed from this product by reactions within the metal causing a loss of electrons, so that it became oxidised. Very dependent initially on charcoal for this heating process, this was eventually replaced by the use of coal instead. Huge factories rose up everywhere in the western world.

The industrial age had well and truly begun. This allowed for a massive expansion world wide in construction, trade, iron and steel products of every kind, and the business and trading world sped up much faster than it had ever done before.

Answer: Arch bridge

Although the occasional arch bridge had been known to exist before this time, it would be the mighty Roman Empire which gave the world this style of bridge on a far-reaching and commonly seen basis. This in turn lead to more travel and commerce spanning regions that had previously been hard to access.

The Romans built at least 330 of these bridges for normal traffic, and another 54 aquaduct bridges with the same design. Such was their strength and endurance, some of these are still in use well into the 21st century, two thousand years later. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? The advantages of the arch bridges were that they could withstand great amounts of flood waters without being damaged, they could safely stretch across large bodies of water, they weighed less than their older style counterparts, and they were the first to be built with concrete. With safe bridges, came more roads stretching all over the western world, and with more roads came more trade, transported far cheaper than by sea.

The arch bridge was here to stay.