Renissance Inventions

• Caravel


  • Sailing vessel used as cargo vessel, patrol craft, warships, fishing boats and exploration vessels
  • First developed by the Portuguese in the 15th Century
  • Became the workhorses of the seas
  • Each ship weighed between 50 and 200 tons apiece
  • Pretty cheap to build even in their day
• Traverse Board


  • Helped ships, like Caravals, stay on track on long voyages
  • A sort of early computer that helped keep things organized on the ship
  • Allowed sailors to record the speed of their ship and the direction in which it had traveled over a given period of time
• Galleon


  • Developed in the 16th century
  • Massive upgrade to ships that came before it, like the Caraval
• Magnetic Compass


  • Consisted of a magnetized needle
  • Provided sailors with a powerful navigational aid
  • Helped find "magnetic north"
  • First developed in China around the 11th century
• Kamal


  • Consisted of a piece of wood and a piece of string
  • Used to estimate a vessel's latitude at sea
  • First thought to have been developed by Arab sailors in the 9th-century
  • Eventually replaced by the cross staff
• Hourglass


  • Timekeeping device
  • Used to help keep things in order on deck
  • Vital for calculating the speed at which a ship was traveling at a given moment
• Astrolabe


  • Portable device used by sailors to help them find their way
  • Measured the distance of the sun and stars above the horizon
  • Helped determine latitude, an important tool in navigation
• Quadrant


  • Instrument that enabled navigators to measure altitude
  • Allowed sailors to work out the altitude or latitude they were at
• Sundial


  • Earliest type of timekeeping device
  • Indicated the time of day by the position of the shadow of some object exposed to the sun's rays
• Printing Press


  • Machine by which text and images were transferred from movable type to paper or other media by means of ink
  • Movable type and paper were invented in China, and the oldest known book printed from movable type was created in Korea in the 14th century
  • Made books easier and cheaper to produce, which increased the number of books, and lowered the cost of books so that more people could learn to read and get more reading materials
• The Renaissance


  • Period of great change and rebirth in Europe that came after the Dark Ages
  • People started to focus more on art, science, and literature
• Important things that happened during the Renaissance

  • Development of new forms of art
  • Invention of the printing press
  • Exploration of new lands
  • Rise of humanism
• Important people from the Renaissance

  • Leonardo da Vinci
  • Michelangelo
  • Galileo Galilei
  • William Shakespeare
  • Henry VIII
• Germany, around 1440, the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, which started the Printing Revolution.