Medieval (500-1500)

6 inventions

Accidentally invented by alchemists seeking an elixir of immortality. The formula was first recorded...

Mechanical clocks replaced water clocks and sundials for monastic prayer schedules. The verge-and-fo...

The Phoenician alphabet had 22 consonant signs, no vowels. The Greeks added vowels around 800 BC. Th...

The first standardized coins were made of electrum, a natural gold-silver alloy. Croesus of Lydia mi...

Zero as a number, not just a placeholder, was formalized by Brahmagupta. The Maya independently inve...

The first spectacles appeared in northern Italy around 1286. In a sermon of 1306, the Dominican fria...