Earliest Inventions in recorded history

Historians differ in their opinions of when the Middle Ages began and ended, most sources define the Middle Ages as an historical period from 500 AD to 1450 AD. While there was a suppression of knowledge and learning, the Middle Ages was a period full of discovery and inventing.

1023

First paper money printed in China.

1045

Movable type printing by Bi Sheng in China

Circa 1050

Crossbow invented in France.

1182

Magnetic compass invented.

Circa 1200

Clothing buttons invented.

1202

The Hindu-Arabic numbering system introduced to the west by Italian mathematician, Fibonacci.

1249

Rodger Bacon invented his gunpowder formula.

Circa 1250

Gun invented in China.

Circa 1268 - 1289

Invention of eyeglasses.

Circa 1280

Mechanical clocks invented.

Circa 1285 - 1290

Windmills invented.

1295

Modern glassmaking begins in Italy.

1328

First sawmill.

1326

First mention of a handgun.

1366

Scales for weighing invented.