Did China also discover the Americas in 1421?

Longitude
If anyone has not yet read "Longitude", you are missing a great true story that changed our world. I treasure my hardback copy. When I retired and moved from California to New Mexico, I gave away nearly 1,000 books. However, I still had to install 8 floor to ceiling bookcases to house the books I brought to my new home. I tend to favor non-fiction and find it amazing and pleased that there is such a huge demand for non-fiction books. It seems there IS hope for our society.

-----BumbleBeeBoogie

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
by Dava Sobel

Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com

The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward.

Other good reading:

The Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester (Author) (Paperback)
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester (Author) (Paperback)
The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World by Amir D. Aczel (Author) (Paperback)
The Illustrated Longitude by Dava Sobel, William J. H. Andrewes (Paperback)
Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh, John Lynch (Paperback)

I think you would greatly enjoy the works of Simon Schama, and one short and very enjoyable read is Dead Certanties.

what Harrison invented was more a chronometer that could withstand travelling in all positionsand not be affected by shipboard conditions. The Chinese water clocks were stationary, thats why their calculation of solar longitude is accurate over a year but not hour to hour or even day to day. A reference noon is needed to be carried on the trip so that ephemeris tables could be used to compute the difference and accrately fix longitude. I am not aware of anyone that has stated that the Chinese had ephemeris tabl;es.
Nowadays all we need to do is carry extra batteries. or have an inverter on the boat.

captain Bligh had one of the first pocket chronometers when he was put off the Bounty in the famous (infamous) mutiny. That is a large part of the reason he was able to take 18 men in a 23 foot launch 3600 miles from the Friendly Islands in the South Pacific to Timor in Indonesia.

Actually, i believe that was closer to 4500 miles . . . i'll go check it out . . .

This is from Plantexplorers.com ( ) :



I consulted several other on-line sources, which more or less gave the same figure, 3600-3700 miles . . . what is significant to me is that the long, personal relationship of Fletcher Christian and William Bligh lead the former to accede to the request for his navigational instruments on the part of the latter. I rather think that Bligh could have made Timor by dead reckoning, he was that good, but i also think that the outcome would not have been as good.

Speaking of adrift, has anyone read the book with the same name. "Adrift", by Steve Callahan -- highly entertaining.
Callahan was traveling the world in his sailboat and the night after he left the Canary Islands he was asleep at sea when the boat being tossed side to side awoke him. He had just enough time to determine that it wasn't a storm that was tossing the ship -- the seas were calm -- but his boat literally split in half and he had just enough to grab a small rubber dinghy and leaped into the ocean as his boat sunk from sight. He never did determine what caused his boat to sink (whales, I think he speculated) but he managed to survive at sea for two and a half months with virtually no supplies. It's one of the best survival stories I've ever read.

gustav, Some people's ability to survive miraculously from sure death for most is always a human interest story. Survival for two and a half month in the middle of the ocean without supplies sounds like some tale of great magnitude. c.i.

C.I., Check it out. It's a very fast read. Let me know what you think. Let's see.... it's 3:OO p.m. CST I'll allow compensation of 1 hour for you to find and acquire the book. Two hours to read, so I'll check back and 6:00 and get your opinion.
Gus

gus, Whew! It took me ten minutes to learn how to speed read, fifteen minutes to find the book, and two minutes to read it. Amazing! He was adrift for 76 days, traveled 1,800 miles, and lived on a 5.5 foot inflatable. He had only three pounds of food, and 8 pints of water. An amazing story of survival for sure. c.i.

The Bounty castaways had a number of advantages that Callahan did not. They had a goal (Timor) and the means to get there (oars and sail) they knew where they were and their daily progress (Bligh's navigation) and each other (psychological and moral support). Callahan on the other hand had only himself. He could neither control his progress or direction and had no one to talk to but the fish and his hallucinations. This makes his survival all the more remarkable.

Acquiunk, So, I'm assuming you read the book? Good stuff, huh?

C.I. I am very impressed with your ability to complete an assignment in such a short period of time. Considering the fact that you not only found the book, but also learned to speed-read, and finish the book, all with hours to spare, is nothing short of remarkable.

What can I say -- I am at a loss for words.

Gus

When you make a 'remarkable' demand, I had to resort to a remarkable answer. c.i.

ci-laast week you asked about the fathers of geology. I gave you my opinions about Nick Steno and JAmes Hutton. turns out there are 2 new books on these guys. The best is"the man who found time" by Jack Repcheck. Its a great read about Hutton, who is someone we are always drilled about but never in the context of the age. repchek did a fine job by writing a very compelling and interesting account , which, I must say, I read in an evening,it was that good

The other book "seashell on the mountaintop" by Alan Cutler is an ok book but left me with more questions about Steno. Its still valuable information on the foundings of a discipline separated from religious dogma and catma

If you likemWinchesters book on Bill Smith, youre going to love the Hutton Book.

Thank you, farmerman. Will look up the Hutton book for my next read. c.i.

And by the way, yes China did discover America and Australia before anyone else. However, they only spread their influences there and not take over both place.

One is that, they didn't want to take over the place and second, travelling across the Pacific (by sea) even now aren't fun.

I also half disagree with whoever said that America was invented and not discovered. Yes, America was invented but not the white people. The Aztecs and native Americans invented it. Who said they had no modern technology?

They probably had one of the best knowing how to protect their environment and not destroy it like all countries do today.
White people came in due to greed and virtually wiped them out and not only that, in Australia as least, they treated them with disrespect and virtually in my opinon "raped" them in which they call assimilation.

Yes, you are right about China and in hated for outsider but look at this from another view. Look at it from an Aboriginal or Iraqi view and you will understand why they act in certain ways they do today. China was in the same situation when the West invaded, you know, it hurts and if you people care to learn Chinese and the national anthem, its a war song still in use today. It express the struggle to adapt and merge into the forceful new society and leave behind their own culture and so they cloud this with such "arrogances" as you may call it but doesn't all country with different view and power do that today?
Just look at the study of history today, if you are like me and live in Australia you ended up studing the short history of Australia after white settlement. In ancient history, we study Greek and Rome and a little of Egypt which were just as mighty as the two.

My comment was that they did "JUST ABOUT" everything first. So I suggest you learn to read before calling anyone else stupid.

We are a early-smart nation.
The Great Yellow river in the North and the Great Yangtze River in the south created a great nation with great culture great intelligence and great technology.
But histroy told us every great nation cannot avoid the falling down, China was not an exception.

Ironically, about 1300 years ago when china was during the most properous time and Europe is falling into the black. The Scandinavians were the most uncivilized and the nation in the world. But nowadays they are the richest and the most civilized nations on the planet.

quite a joke right?

(there arent any discrimination meanings in my post. I just want to show my sadness. Anyway China is preparing to come into a new prosperous time)

oh again i remember a quite ludicrous thing.

Our nation biult up a trememdous fleet just because they want to hold the mountains of gold, gems, and china.

Why they want to carry these things? Because they want to give them to the local countries and the tribes as the gift on the voyage(mostly in Southest Asia, India, Arab, and Africa)

That is the funny things only can be done by generous empire

You forget what East India Company use thier large ship for?