Compass

The first invention that I chose was the compass. The first compass dates back to the early Han Dynasty. It took off in the fourth century BC and it took 15,000 years to be adopted by the west. The first compass was a lodestone spoon on a bronze square. Inside of the square was a smaller circle. The circle resembled heaven and the square resembled earth. The Lodestone spoon would always faces north. The compass was first used to build houses and to always make sure that they faced in a direction that was in harmony with nature. The first mention of the compass in Europe occured in the year 1190, when Alexander Neckam wrote, "...when the world is wrapped up in the darkness of the shades of night, and they are ignorant to what point of the compass their ship's cource is directed..."(page 149 in The Genius of China). When the Arabs saw the compass they only described it as, "...a fish shaped piece of iron rubbed on a magnet..." (page 149 in The Genius of China). Although the Europeons had the compass decades before tha Arabs both people used the compass for navigation. All of these facts are very important, and leading up to the big question. Why is the compass important to modern day America? I think that the compass is very important. Think about if you where on a cruise to Alaska and the GPS system that they hadbrook down halfway there. What would the captian do? He would pull out his compass and still be able to get the criuse ship to Alaska. What about camping, lots of families like to take a nice camping trip over break. Whel if you dont have your car to drive you around in the middle of the forest you would take out a compass and head right where you want to go. Those reasons are just few of many that helped me decide if the compass was really a top five invention.