Shen Kuo completes Dream Pool Essays
1088
The Song polymath, retired from government service, compiled his Brush Talks from Dream Brook, an encyclopedic miscellany describing the magnetic compass, movable-type printing, astronomical phenomena, music, mathematics, and archaeology. It was the most wide-ranging scientific work of the medieval world, written by a single curious mind. His observation that the compass needle points slightly east of true north was the first recorded description of magnetic declination.
In context
Also in 1088 (4 other events on record)
- University of Bologna traditionally founded · Europe · Culture
- Shen Kuo Describes the Magnetic Compass Needle · East Asia · Science
- Urban II elected pope · Europe · Religion
- Dream Pool Essays Documents Geological Insights · East Asia · Science
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in Science
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources