Bi Sheng (972–1051) was a Chinese craftsman and engineer during the Song dynasty (960–1279). He invented the world’s first movable type. His system used fired clay tiles, with one tile for each Chinese character.
Yixing (Chinese: 一行; pinyin: Yīxíng; Wade–Giles: I-Hsing, 683–727) was a Buddhist monk from the Tang dynasty. He was known for his work as an astronomer, his help in improving the imperial calendar, his knowledge of the Yijing (易經), and his role as a respected figure in Esoteric Buddhism. In secular matters, Yixing became well-known for changing the imperial calendar and building a celestial globe with a special part that used liquid to move.
Su Song (Chinese: 蘇頌; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: So͘ Siōng, 1020–1101), also known as Zirong (Chinese: 子容; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chú-iông), was a Chinese scientist and government official who lived during the Song dynasty (960–1279). He was an expert in many areas, such as mathematics, astronomy, mapmaking, geography, metalworking, mechanical engineering, water engineering, poetry, and politics. Su Song designed and built a large clock tower in Kaifeng that used water and machines to track time.
Cai Lun (Chinese: 蔡伦; courtesy name: Jingzhong; c. 50–62 – 121 CE), also known as Ts’ai Lun, was a Chinese eunuch court official during the Eastern Han dynasty. He played an important role in the history of paper because he added tree bark and hemp waste to the papermaking process.
Vitruvius (pronounced vi-TROO-vee-əs) was a Roman architect and engineer who lived during the 1st century BC. He is best known for his book called De architectura, which is the only surviving work on architecture from ancient times. This book became very important during the Renaissance, as it was considered the first written work about architectural theory and a key source for understanding the rules of classical architecture.
Philo of Byzantium, also called Philo Mechanicus or “Philo the Engineer” in Latin, was a Greek engineer, physicist, and writer about mechanics. He lived during the second half of the 3rd century BC, from around 280 BC to around 220 BC. Although he was born in Byzantium, he spent most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt.
Ctesibius, also spelled Ktesibios or Tesibius (Ancient Greek: Κτησίβιος), lived around 285 to 222 BCE. He was a Greek inventor and mathematician who worked in Alexandria, Egypt under the Ptolemaic dynasty. Little is known about his personal life, but his inventions were widely recognized during his time.
Hero of Alexandria (pronounced “HEE-ron”; also called Heron of Alexandria; lived around 10 AD to 70 AD) was a mathematician and engineer who worked in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Roman period. He is known as one of the most important scientists of ancient times and helped advance the scientific traditions of the Hellenistic world. Hero wrote about a steam-powered device called an aeolipile, also known as “Hero’s engine.” He also created a windwheel, which was the first known machine to use wind power on land.
Archimedes of Syracuse (pronounced AR-kih-MEE-deez; around 287 to around 212 BC) was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although not much is known about his life, his surviving work shows he was one of the most important scientists of classical antiquity and one of the greatest mathematicians in history. Archimedes used ideas about very small numbers and a method called exhaustion to carefully prove many geometry rules, such as the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, the area of an ellipse, the area under a parabola, the volume of a paraboloid, the volume of a hyperboloid, and the area of a spiral.
Adele J. Goldberg was born on July 22, 1945. She is an American computer scientist who helped create the programming language Smalltalk-80.