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First magnetic compass was created in china.
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The Chinese drill wells with primitive boring equipment to depths as great as 3,500 feet.
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Gunpowder is employed for weaponry in China, as primitive rockets, mortars, and cannons are in use.
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Windmills found in France, England, and elsewhere in Europe.
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A treadmill hoisting machine powered by donkeys is installed at the Abbey of Mont St. Michel on the French seacoast.
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The Hopi people of southwestern North America burn coal for cooking and heating, and to bake the pottery they make from clay.
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The first known production of hydrogen is made by the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus.
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The first wind-driven sawmill is built in the Netherlands.
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From an experiment using barometers at different levels on a mountain, French mathematician Blaise Pascal establishes that air pressure decreases with altitude, leading him to conclude that the atmosphere has only a finite height.
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Coal takes the place of wood as the dominant fuel in the U.S. economy, as industry has replaced human labor and draft animals with steam engines and other inanimate energy converters.