Week 13 History Essay

            The four inventions I learned about this week are buttons, oil painting, the cannon, and finally, the spinning wheel. First, I’ll write about buttons. Buttons, as you probably know, are used to fasten clothes. They can be made of many materials like plastic, metal, wood, leather, etc. They were invented around Greco-Roman times originally to be decorative, but later were used to fasten clothes together, and are still used today. Next is oil painting. Oil paints are made by mixing color pigments with some kind of oil like linseed, poppy seed, walnut or safflower oil. It was invented by Jan Van Eyck in the 1100s. It quickly became the most popular form of painting, and is still very popular today. The next invention is the cannon. A cannon is a big gun meant to launch projectiles using gunpowder. It was invented in 1250 AD by the Chinese. It changed history, because now people could build forts and protect themselves with cannons. Cannons aren’t used as much today, because we have missiles. The last invention I learned about was the spinning wheel, which is a belt-driven device that incorporates prior technology to increase thread production rates. Basically, it was a machine that helped produce thread faster. The Indians and the Chinese invented it in the 1200s. Thread is now made in large factories, but some people still use the spinning wheel for fun. The invention I like the most this week was probably oil painting, because I like to paint with it. I also like watching Bob Ross’ painting show.