Compass

The magnetic compass The first incontestable Chinese reference to a magnetized needle comes from Shen Kuo's Dream Pool Essays in 1088, written for geomancers rather than sailors. Within a few decades Zhu Yu's Pingzhou Table Talks, from 1111 to 1117, describes sailors who look at the south-pointing needle in dark weather. Europe's first description, Alexander Neckam's of about 1190, actually predates the earliest known Islamic reference, a Persian story collection of 1232. That awkward order is why this entry is genuinely contested. Some historians argue that Arab sailors carried the idea from China to Europe; others propose a separate European invention. Either way, the Chinese evidence comes first by about a century.