Writer, philosopher and scholar Shen Kuo, first described the complicated technology of dry compass, that used a magnetic needle; in his book, published in 1088 AD. The first “real” mention of the compass was in a book entitled “Dream Pool Essays” dated 1086 by scholar Shen Kuo, in the Song Dynasty. The 4 Great Inventions of ancient China are printing,papermaking, gunpowder and compass.Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a … In any case, Shen Kuo's writing on magnetic compasses has proved invaluable for understanding China's earliest use of the compass for seafaring navigation. The compass was invented by the Arabs 3000 in Petra(20 BC – 20 AD). Shen Kuo wrote that when “magicians rub the point of a needle with lodestone, then it is able to point to the south…It may be made to float on the surface of water, but it is then rather unsteady…It is best to suspend it by a single cocoon fiber of new silk … The compass was later used for navigation during the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), as described by Shen Kuo. However, Zhu Yu's book recounts events back to 1086, when Shen Kuo was writing the Dream Pool Essays; this meant that in Shen's time the compass might have already been in navigational use. Shanghai Daily says Shen Kuo studied nature extensively and drew hundreds of sketches before he made this declaration. - Discovered by: Shen Kuo in 1088. First compass was invented in China during the Han Dynasty between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD but its principal history is much longer. The first “real” mention of the compass was in a book entitled “Dream Pool Essays” dated 1086 by scholar Shen Kuo, in the Song Dynasty. Shen Kuo was hundreds of years ahead of the Western scientists in the fields of astronomy, meteorology, geography, mineralogy, mathematics and the calendar. There is also a reference to a magnetic compass and its use in cartography. The first compasses were made of lodestone, a naturally magnetized stone of iron, in Han dynasty China (20 BC – 20 AD). Shen Kua claimed that fossilised plants were evidence for changes in climate. Because the Chinese alphabet is primarily pictographic and ideographic rather than alphabetic, movable type did not advance in China at this time. Plinius the Elder, which lived from 23 to 70 year, wrote that that a shepherd called Magnes had noted that the nails of his shoes and the iron point of his staff clung to the rocks on Mount Ida. The compass was later used for navigation during the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), as described by Shen Kuo. The compass was invented more than 2000 years ago. Later compasses were made of iron needles, magnetized by striking them with a lodestone. Chinese writers describe it as an “orientation in obscurity of night.”. The Compass Also important to oceangoing travel was the perfection of the compass. He was the first to discover that the compass does not point directly north, but to the magnetic north pole. Besides, how was the compass invented? It is a remarkable scientific document which contains his work on mathematics, music, astronomy, calendars, cartography, geology, optics and medicine. The Song dynasty statesman Shen Kuo was the first to decide that true north was different from the magnetic compass north. 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