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Comment by AussieWog93 | Hacker News Reader

>China inventing paper, printing and gunpowder is something every school child knows.

Just anecdata, but prior to reading your comment I thought the Egyptians invented paper (papyrus) and Gutenberg invented printing.

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Nitpick: Paper is different to papyrus and was much more important because you don’t need reeds to make it, which Egypt had a monopoly of. After the Roman Empire collapsed no-one could get papyrus and had to use parchment which was super expensive and resulted in most people becoming illiterate because they could’t afford writing / reading material (the dark ages)

Then paper came along (from China) and made it cheap again.

It's "the four great inventions" the fourth is the compass. Sure, but what have they done for us in last few millenias? :)

When I was in elementary school I made paper out of cut up blue jeans and learned that it was invented in China. I also learned that the Egyptians invented papyrus, which was similar to paper but shittier. Recalling it now, I also remember that I grew up in a paper mill town.. so maybe my school placed an unusually strong emphasis on paper. Still, I don't think China inventing paper is esoteric knowledge in America.

I can't remember when I first heard that China invented wooden movable type, but I do recall reading about it a whole lot online in discussions quite like this one.

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