Glazed Wall System: Fill & Download for Free

Ceramic glazes require a kiln firing in order to vitrify — that's turn into fused glass — and to oxidize in order to turn to the colors you expect them to be.A moderately low kiln firing temperature is cone 05, about 1888°F - 1911°F. Some glazes require temps in the 2000° – 2200°F range. Even this relatively low temperature requires between five and eight hours for the kiln to slowly reach this temperature, usually between 108° – 270° per hour, in order to avoid stressing the ceramic pieces by heating and expanding too quickly or unevenly and causing breakage. After that firing temperature is reached, it takes another 10 to 15 hours for the kiln to slowly cool down — again, to protect against uneven cooling rates and more breakage.Combining the 24 to 30 hours simply for the full firing process itself, you must add the time it takes to carefully load and unload the kiln with a wide variety of oddly shaped ceramic pieces. These cannot touch each other, nor the kiln walls, and they must have a base which is clean of glaze (which means wiping them clean, if the customer was not careful in their work), or they must be specially stilted to avoid touching the kiln shelf with a glazed surface.When I fire the kiln at the elementary school where I teach, I assume it will take a minimum of 72 hours from start to finish — including loading and unloading the kiln, — if I have no interruptions, and if I have enough pieces to fully load the kiln, to maximize the efficiency of using that much energy to run the unit.Cataloguing and recording pieces as the kiln is loaded, to ensure that they are returned to the correct customer, is another step requiring time, even with an efficient system for doing so.It would make sense for a business, which is promising a product to be completed on time and as expected for their customers, to pad their time allotment a little bit, just to ensure that it is ready for delivery when the customer comes to pick it up. If it's a busy shop with customers producing enough glazed pieces to fill a kiln each day, this should be no problem. A couple of slower days could mean it takes a bit longer to accumulate enough completed pieces for an efficient firing.That’s long and short of it.Beyond this, if the glaze chemistry requires a specific temperature that is higher or lower, the piece must be fired in a kiln firing only with other pieces using the same types of glazes which have the same firing requirements. Glazes fired at too high or too low a temperature won't turn the expected color. Too high, and you've ruined the piece, a complete do-over (bad for business!). Too low, and it can be re-heated to the correct temp — but you won't be able to look and see this until it’s cool enough to touch — and you'll need to start the firing process all over again.

The contribution of Egypt to the world civilization is noteworthy.The method of writing, literature, art, architecture, religion, science of the Egyptians had compelled the people of the world to raise their eyebrows.Art of Writing:To express the thinking of their mind, the Egyptians invented art of writing. Although from the very beginning they were not acquainted with the alphabets, still then they were able to express their idea through different pictures. So, their writing was popularly known as ‘Hieroglyphy’ or ‘sacred writing’ because those were written by the priestsAt first, the Egyptians used pictures and then they used around 2000 pictographic signs. In due course of time their number was reduced and limited to 700 only. At last they invented 24 alphabets. They engraved those alphabets on stone. The ‘Rosetta Stone’ preserved in the British Museum in London is its classic example. Later on the Egyptians used pen and paperPaper, pen, ink and inkpot:On the banks of Nile, a plant named ‘Papyrus’ was plentily available. The leaves of Papyrus tree were joined through gum and the long roll was prepared. By polish such rolls were glazed. In a Papyrus roll of twenty to forty feet length and five to ten inches breadth the Egyptian wrote their idea. The modem name ‘Paper’, perhaps, has been derived from the term ‘Papyrus’.They took juice of plants and prepared ‘ink’ by mixing gum and water with it. In several cases they also prepared ink by missing gum with black particles found from kitchen house or lamps.They sharpened the edge of the steam of a plant and prepared ‘reed pen’. By dipping the pen inside the ‘ink pot’ they wrote on Papyrus. At last, pieces of Papyrus were rolled and preserved inside the earthen pots. Writing was indeed a noble invention of the Egyptians.Literature:The ancient Egyptians had created immortal literature. They composed literature concerning astrology, metallurgy, weaving and cooking. Besides, they also reflected legends, adventures, thrilling experiences, religious thought etc. in their literature. Among their prose writings, ‘The tale of two brothers’, ‘The tale of Sinuhi’, ‘The legend of the doomed prince’ and ‘The story of the ship-wrecked Sailor’ were very famous. Their religious literature contained books like ‘The Pyramid Text’, ‘The Coffin Text’, ‘The Book of the dead’, ‘A dialogue between the disgusted Man and his soul’, ‘The Maxims of Ptahotep’ and ‘Hymn to Aton’ (written by Akhnaton).Science: CalendarThe ancient Egyptians were very good astronomers of their time. Looking at the cloudless clear blue sky, they could predict about the solar and lunar eclipse, flood in the river Nile, time of sowing seeds etc. They could also know about the movement of Planets and Stars. They had prepared a ‘Calendar’.They divided a year into 360 days and 12 months, each month consisting of 30 days. Each day was divided into 24 hours or two parts and each part consisting of 12 hours. At the end of every year, they added 5 days more only to be spent in feast and merrymaking. Julius Caesor had adopted this Calendar Pope Gregory XIII adopted this calendar with a little modification. The Egyptian Calendar is the first recorded event of human history.Mathematics and Geometry:The ancient Egyptians exhibited their talent in the field of ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Geometry’. They were very efficient in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They had acquired knowledge in triangle, quadrangle, square, rectangle etc. for measuring the land.They utilised their mathematical and geometrical knowledge in building the Pyramids. The oldest treatise on Mathematics ‘Ahmes Papyrus’ has been found from Egypt which speaks the high mathematical and geometrical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians.Medical Science:The Egyptians acquired deep knowledge in medical science. From their old library two books concerning medical science have been discovered. Edwin Smith has translated these books. From that translation it is known that the Egyptians knew about different diseases and also knew how to cure them.They had idea regarding surgery. They could also preserve dead bodies by applying chemicals. The physicians of Egypt also knew the use of castor oil. It will not be wrong if the Egyptians are termed as the ‘Father of Medical science’.Art and architecture: Pyramid:The Egyptians have immortalised their name in the annals of history due to their art and architecture. Pyramid is the classic example of it. The tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh is known as Pyramid. The people of Egypt believed that after death, the soul returns back to the body. So they preserved the dead body of the Pharaoh by applying chemicals in it. This preserved body of the Pharaoh was known a ‘Mummy’. It was covered with cloth and kept inside a coffin.That coffin was again kept inside a stone box named as Sarcophagus which contained small holes. The Egyptians believed that the soul can again enter into that body through these holes. That box was placed inside a room in the middle of the Pyramid. In the walls of that room the life history of the Pharaoh was written.The wife of the Pharaoh, his servants and slaves were killed and kept inside the room with food, water, cloth and jewels. It was believed that the soul could recognise these things and again return back to the dead body of the Pharaoh. By covering this room, the tomb of Pharaoh or Pyramid was built by stone, bricks and limestone. It has been rightly told regarding the Pyramid that “All the world fears time, but time fears the Pyramids”.Among the Pyramids of Egypt, the Pyramid built by Pharaoh Josher at Sakara is the oldest. The famous and largest Pyramid of Khufu was built at Gizeh. This is regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This 481 feet Pyramid is built over 13 acres of land. 2,300,000 pieces of stones were used in it.The weight of each piece of stone is 2.5 tons. Nearly twenty years were spent for building this Pyramid. In fact, Pyramid immortalises the Egyptians in the annals of world history.Temple:Temples were another classic example of the Egyptian architecture. The Pharaohs built temples to please gods and goddesses. The Karnak temple at Thebes is world famous. This is the largest temple of Egypt. Its length is around two kilometres. This temple rests on 12 pillars, each having 79 feet height.The temple walls are filled up with the war scene and achievements of the Pharaohs and its top, with hieroglyphic writings. This temple was meant for the worship of Amon-Ra or Sun-god. The temples at Luxor and Abu Simbel were also very nice.Sculpture:The ancient Egyptians were skilled sculptors. Among their Sculptures, Sphinx was very famous. This gigantic stone statue is a remarkable sculpture having the body of a lion with human head. The Great Sphinx stands at the doorstep of the biggest Pyramid at Gizeh. It represents the head of Pharaoh Khafare of Amenhotep III. Its grave facial appearance and a ray of laughter make it unintelligible before the viewers. Besides the Sphincs, the Egyptians built huge images. The great statues ofAmenhotep III at Luxor, Ramesis III, his queen and family deity Amon- Ra at Abu Simbel are regarded as great statues of the world. Innumerable statues, animals, birds, ivory, wood and terracotta testify to the fact that the ancient Egyptians were skilled sculptors.Religion:Religion played a vital role in the life of the Egyptians. From the beginning they believed in Polytheism They worshipped around 2200 gods and goddesses. They attached divinity in creatures and worshipped them. Their crocodile god was famous as ‘Sibek’. The cat god was called ‘Pashat’ and jackle god was named as ‘Anubis’.The Egyptians regarded ‘Ra’ as the God of the universe. His son ‘Osiris’ was famous as the ‘Lord of Egypt’ and also as Justice of the departed soul. His wife ‘Isis’ was the goddess of fertile soil. ‘Horas’, the son of Osiris was the god of poor and destitute. There was an influential community of priests in Egypt to worship these gods and goddesses.Pharaoh Akhnaton or Amenhotep IV brought a revolutionary change in the field of religion. He introduced ‘Monotheism’ in Egypt. He proclaimed that there was only one God and he is ‘Aton’ or ‘Sun-god’. The priests of Egypt had described ‘Ra’ or ‘Amon-Ra’ as a dreadful god. However, Akhnoton declared ‘Aton’ as omniscient, kind, father-like and an incarnation of mercy.He further told that Aton had made the world beautiful and created mankind. He prohibited the worship of ‘Amon- Ra’ in Karnak and Luxor and introduced the offers like fruits in vegetables of animal sacrifice. That is why the priests considered him as their enemy. His wife Nefertiti helped him in the glorification of monotheism.After Akhnaton his son-in-law Tutankhamen also popularised monotheism in Egypt. After him, polytheism was again introduced in Egypt. The ancient-Egyptians also believed in life after death. That is why they built Pyramid. Osiris was sending a man to heaven or hell after judgement. The Egyptians also believed in deeds. The result of good deeds led a human being to heaven and bad deeds, to hell.Philosophy:The ancient Egyptians had also attained celebrity in the field of Philosophy. Ptahotep was the greatest philosopher of that time. He was the provincial ruler of Memphis. In his famous book entitled ‘Instructions to Ptahotep’ he had given many advices for regulating the life. Much before Confucious, Socrates and Buddha Ptahotep had discussed the philosophy of life.Postal Service:The people of ancient Egypt were aware about the postal system. The study of Papyrus leads historians to believe that the people of that land were sending message. In an ancient Papyrus it has been written— “Write me through the bearer of the letter”. This conclusively proves that the Egyptians were well aware about the postal service. It will not be wrong if the ancient Egyptians are described as “The father of modern postal service”.Historiography:The Egyptians were the father of ‘Historiography’. The historians accompanied the Pharaoes to the battle field and recorded their achievements. The ‘Rosetta stone’ is its classic example. By deciphering it the French palaeographer Champollion had discerned many facts regarding the Egyptian civilisation. The history of different royal dynasties is known due to this historiography. Thus, the ancient Egyptians were trend setters of history writing.Agriculture and Irrigation:In the field of agriculture the Egyptians also excelled. They were skilled agriculturists. They had invented plough and hoe. By a device called ‘Shadur they could carry the water of Nile to the canals which helped in irrigation. The chief crops grown by them were wheat, barley flax. They also produced fruits like orange, date-palm, melon etc.Navigation, Trade and Commerce:The Egyptians first used boat in case of trade and commerce. Egypt became a centre of trade in the entire Mediterranean region. In due course of time, they established trade relation with Nubiya, Sudan Janjibar, Persia, Crate and Phonesia. They exported ivory, gold, the feather of Ostrich and slaves.They imported cattle, fish and wine from Asia; Precious red stones from Persia and copper from Senai. By utilising navy for the first time, the Egyptians have enriched the human civilisation.Craftsmanship:The Egyptians were also expert in craftsmanship. They knew the art of melting together copper with tin to make bronze. They made brick, cement and plaster of Paris. They also manufactured glazed pottery and coloured glass. They were also apt in the carving of wood. From Papyrus plants they made ropes, mats and sandals. The Egyptian workmen developed the art of enamelling and varnishing. Thus, their skilled craftsmanship was widely recognised in the world.System of Administration:The Pharaoes of Egypt were administrations of superb calibre. They were very powerful. They commanded respect from their subjects. In many cases divinity was attached to the Pharaoes. They discharged efficient administration due to the help of ministers, provincial administrators and royal officers. This efficient administration was recognised all over the world.Infact, the contribution of Egyptians to human civilisation was immense. Egypt, the ‘land of Pyramid’ allured the attention of millions due to its splendid art and architecture. In the field of writing, religion, science, administration trade and commerce etc. the ancient Egyptians had left their indelible marks on the sea shore of time.

THE MUSLIM INVENTIONS LIE EXPOSED:I MADE OUT MY OWN REPLIES TO ONE OF THE LISTS A WHILE BACK AND HERE IT IS:Muslim inventions:Coffee: The Ethiopian ancestors of today's Oromo ethnic group were the first to have recognized the energizing effect of the native coffee plant. Originally they were neither muslim nor christian.Camera (pinhole): Aristotle wrote about pinhole images in the 4th century B.C.Experimental physics: As a distinct field, experimental physics was established in early modern Europe, during what is known as the Scientific Revolution, by physicists such as Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, Johannes Kepler, Blaise Pascal and Sir Isaac Newton.Chess: The history of chess goes back almost 1500 years. The game originated in northern India in the 6th century AD and spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world.Soap: The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali, and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.Shampoo: The word shampoo entered the English language from India during the colonial era. It dates to 1762, and is derived from Hindi chāmpo itself derived from the Sanskrit root chapayati, which means to press, knead, soothe). In India, a variety of herbs and their extracts were used as shampoos since ancient times. A very effective early shampoo was made by boiling Sapindus with dried Indian gooseberry (aamla) and a few other herbs, using the strained extract. Sapindus, also known as soapberries or soapnuts, is called Ksuna in ancient Indian texts and its fruit pulp contains saponins which are a natural surfactant.Perfumes: The world's first recorded chemist is a person named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a Cuneiform tablet from the 2nd millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. Perfume and perfumery also existed in Indus civilization (3300 BCE - 1300 BCE). One of the earliest distillation of Ittar was mentioned in the Hindu Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita. According to a 1975 report, an archeologist named Dr Paolo Rovesti found a terra-cotta distillation apparatus in the Indus valley together with oil containers made of the same material, and carbon dating puts this at 3000 B.C., much earlier than we conventionally believe that distillation became practiced for the isolation of essential oils.Irrigation: 3100 BC. The first major irrigation project was created under King Menes during Egypt's First Dynasty. He and his successors used dams and canals (one measuring 20 km) to use the diverted flood waters of the Nile into a new lake called lake "Moeris."Crank shaft: 3rd century: The earliest evidence of a crank and connecting rod mechanism dates to the 3rd century AD Hierapolis sawmill in Asia Minor (Turkey) as part of the Roman Empire.Internal combustion engine: 17th century: Christiaan Huygens designs gunpowder to drive water pumps, to supply 3000 cubic meters of water/day for the Versailles palace gardens, essentially creating the first idea of a rudimentary internal combustion piston engine.Combination locks: The earliest known combination lock was excavated in a Roman period tomb on the Kerameikos, Athens. Attached to a small box, it featured several dials instead of keyholes.Architectural Innovations: The Romans did not invent but did master both the arch and vault, bringing a new dimension to their buildings that the Greeks did not have. 1. The Arch and the Vault. 2. Domes. 3. Concrete. 4. Domestic Architecture. 5. Ornate public Buildings. 6. The Colosseum. 7. Aqueducts. 8. Triumphal Arches.Surgical instruments: Surgical instruments have been manufactured since the dawn of pre-history. Rough trephines for performing round craniotomies were discovered in neolithic sites in many places. It is believed that they were used by shamans to release evil spirits and alleviate headaches and head traumas caused by war-inflicted wounds. In the Antiquity, surgeons and physicians in Greece and Rome developed many ingenious instruments manufactured from bronze, iron and silver, such as scalpels, lancets, curettes, tweezers, speculae, trephines, forceps, probes, dilators, tubes, surgical knifes, etc. They are still very well preserved in several medical museums around the world. Most of these instruments continued to be used in Medieval times, albeit with a better manufacturing technique.Anesthesia: ca. 4000 BCE - Sumerian artifacts depict opium poppy. ca. 2250 BCE - Babylonians relieve toothache with henbane (Hyoscyamus niger). ca. 1187 BCE - In Homer's Odyssey, the Greek goddess Circe uses deliriant herbs (Mandragora and/or Datura) in a brew to seemingly transform Odysseus' men into swine. 650 BCE - 393 AD - At the Oracle of Delphi, Apollo's Pythian priestesses utter prophecies after breathing in fumes emanating from geologic faultlines beneath the Temple to Apollo. One of the inhaled gases may have been ethylene, an inhalational anesthetic which will be popular clinically by the mid-1920s AD. ca. 600 BCE - India's Sushruta uses cannabis vapors to sedate surgical patients. Over ensuing centuries, other herbs like aconitum would supplement that sedation in India and eventually in China. ETC.Windmill: The windwheel of the Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria in the first century is the earliest known instance of using a wind-driven wheel to power a machine.Treatment of cowpox: In the years from 1770 to 1790, at least six people who had contact with a cow had independently tested the possibility of using the cowpox vaccine as an immunization for smallpox in humans. Amongst them were the English farmer Benjamin Jesty, in Dorset in 1774 and the German teacher Peter Plett in 1791. Turks had a SMALLPOX innoculation.Fountain pen: There is compelling evidence that the first working fountain pen was constructed and used during the Renaissance by artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo's journals contain drawings with cross-sections of what appears to be a reservoir pen that works by both gravity and capillary action.Numbering system: The Babylonians lived in Mesopotamia, which is between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They began a numbering system about 5,000 years ago. ... The Babylonian number system began with tally marks just as most of the ancient math systems did. The Babylonians developed a form of writing based on cuneiform.Algebra: The Babylonians developed formulas to calculate solutions for problems typically solved today by using linear equations, quadratic equations, and indeterminate linear equations. Naming it algebra is not creating it.Trigonometry: A 3,700-year old Babylonian relic known as Plimpton 322 shows that the ancient Mesopotamian culture beat the Greeks to trigonometry, the study of triangles, by more than 1,000 years.This makes it the world's oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, which was probably used to calculate how to build palaces, temples and canals.Cryptography: The earliest known use of cryptography is found in non-standard hieroglyphs carved into the wall of a tomb from the Old Kingdom of Egypt circa 1900 BCE. These are not thought to be serious attempts at secret communications, however, but rather to have been attempts at mystery, intrigue, or even amusement for literate onlookers. These are examples of still other uses of cryptography, or of something that looks (impressively if misleadingly) like it. Some clay tablets from Mesopotamia somewhat later are clearly meant to protect information—one dated near 1500 BCE was found to encrypt a craftsman's recipe for pottery glaze, presumably commercially valuable. Later still, Hebrew scholars made use of simple monoalphabetic substitution ciphers (such as the Atbash cipher) beginning perhaps around 500 to 600 BCE. The ancient Greeks are said to have known of ciphers. The scytale transposition cipher was used by the Spartan military. The Romans knew something of cryptography (e.g., the Caesar cipher and its variations).3 course meal: Romans started out with two courses, but then developed the starter-main-dessert regime. Sometimes there would be more than one starter and/or more than one main course.Crystal glass: Glasses with lead oxide content first appeared in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of the glass industry.[4] The earliest known example is a blue glass fragment from Nippur dated to 1400 BC containing 3.66% PbO. Glass is mentioned in clay tablets from the reign of Assurbanipal (668–631 BC), and a recipe for lead glaze appears in a Babylonian tablet of 1700 BC. A red sealing-wax cake found in the Burnt Palace at Nimrud, from the early 6th century BC, contains 10% PbO. Lead glass also occurs in Han-period China (206 BC – 220 AD).Carpets: The knotted pile carpet probably originated in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC in West Asia. The earliest known carpet was discovered by Russian Professor Rudenko in 1949 during excavations of burial mounds in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. Called the Pazyryk rug, it dates from the fifth century BC and is now kept in the Hermitage museum of St. Petersburg.Cheques/checks: The ancient Romans are believed to have used an early form of cheque known as praescriptiones in the 1st century BCE.Gardens: Mesopotamia - the "land between the Rivers" Tigris and Euphrates - comprises a hilly and mountainous northern area and a flat, alluvial south. Its peoples (Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians) were urban and literate from about 3,000BC. Evidence for their gardens comes from written texts, pictorial sculpture and archaeology. In western tradition Mesopotamia was the location of the Garden of Eden and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Temple gardens developed from the representation of a sacred grove; several distinct styles of royal garden are also known.University: The Platonic Academy (sometimes referred to as the University of Athens), founded ca. 387 BC in Athens, Greece, by the philosopher Plato, lasted 916 years (until AD 529) with interruptions.[5] It was emulated during the Renaissance by the Florentine Platonic Academy, whose members saw themselves as following Plato's tradition. Around 335 BC, Plato's successor Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school, the students of which met at the Lyceum gymnasium in Athens. The school ceased in 86 BC during the famine, siege and sacking of Athens by Sulla. During the Hellenistic period, the Museion in Alexandria (which included the Library of Alexandria) became the leading research institute for science and technology from which many Greek innovations sprang.Optics: Optics began with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek philosophers, and the development of geometrical optics in the Greco-Roman world.Music: Prehistoric music, once more commonly called primitive music, is the name given to all music produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history. Prehistoric music is followed by ancient music in most of Europe (1500 BC) and later music in subsequent European-influenced areas, but still exists in isolated areas.Toothbrush. Early forms of the toothbrush have been in existence since 3000 BC. Ancient civilizations used a "chew stick," which was a thin twig with a frayed end. These 'chew sticks' were rubbed against the teeth. The bristle toothbrush, similar to the type used today, was not invented until 1498 in China.Hospitals: In ancient cultures, religion and medicine were linked. The earliest documented institutions aiming to provide cures were ancient Egyptian temples. In ancient Greece, temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius, known as Asclepieia (Ancient Greek: Ἀσκληπιεῖα, sing. Asclepieion, Ἀσκληπιεῖον), functioned as centres of medical advice, prognosis, and healing. At these shrines, patients would enter a dream-like state of induced sleep known as enkoimesis (ἐγκοίμησις) not unlike anesthesia, in which they either received guidance from the deity in a dream or were cured by surgery. Asclepeia provided carefully controlled spaces conducive to healing and fulfilled several of the requirements of institutions created for healing. In the Asclepieion of Epidaurus, three large marble boards dated to 350 BCE preserve the names, case histories, complaints, and cures of about 70 patients who came to the temple with a problem and shed it there. Fa Xian, a Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled across India ca. 400 CE, recorded in his travelogue that the heads of the Vaishya [merchant] families in them [all the kingdoms of north India] establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity and medicine. All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans, widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind of help, and doctors examine their diseases.Bathing: Throughout history, societies devised systems to enable water to be brought to population centres. Ancient Indians used elaborate practices for personal hygiene with three daily baths and washing. These are recorded in the works called grihya sutras which are in practice even today in some communities. Ancient Greece utilized small bathtubs, wash basins, and foot baths for personal cleanliness. The earliest findings of baths date from the mid-2nd millennium BC in the palace complex at Knossos, Crete, and the luxurious alabaster bathtubs excavated in Akrotiri, Santorini. The Greeks established public baths and showers within gymnasiums for relaxation and personal hygiene. In fact, the word gymnasium(γυμνάσιο) comes from the Greek word gymnos(γυμνός), meaning naked. Ancient Rome developed a network of aqueducts to supply water to all large towns and population centres and had indoor plumbing, with pipes that terminated in homes and at public wells and fountains. The Roman public baths were called thermae.Quilting: The word "quilt" comes from the Latin "culcita," meaning stuffed sack or cushion. Quilting refers to the stitching holding together three layers: a pieced or appliqued cover, filling and backing. The earliest evidence of quilting is a circa-3400 B.C. carved ivory figure in the British Museum of an Egyptian pharaoh wearing what looks like a quilted mantle.Mariner's compass: The magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty (since about 206 BC).Soft drinks: The history of soft drinks can be traced back to ancient times. Ancient societies believed that bathing in natural springs and dirnking mineral waters could cure diseases.Pendulum: One of the earliest known uses of a pendulum was a 1st-century seismometer device of Han Dynasty Chinese scientist Zhang Heng. Its function was to sway and activate one of a series of levers after being disturbed by the tremor of an earthquake far away.Braille: Braille was based on a tactile military code called night writing, developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon's demand for a means for soldiers to communicate silently at night and without a light source.Cosmetics: The earliest historical record of makeup comes from the 1st Dynasty of Egypt (c.3100-2907 BC). Tombs from this era have revealed unguent jars, which in later periods were scented. ... Romans widely used cosmetics by the middle of the 1st century AD.Plastic Surgery: Treatments for the plastic repair of a broken nose are first mentioned in the Edwin Smith Papyrus, a transcription of an Ancient Egyptian medical text, some of the oldest known surgical treatise, dated to the Old Kingdom from 3000 to 2500 BC. Reconstructive surgery techniques were being carried out in India by 800 BC.Calligraphy: Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script. The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into RomanTyu imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, and Roman cursive for daily use.Paper: Paper making is one of the inventions by Chinese. 105 A.D. is often cited as the year in which papermaking was invented. In that year, historical records show that the invention of paper was reported to the Eastern Han Emperor Ho-di by Ts'ai Lun, an official of the Imperial Court.Cloth: The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East may be fabrics used to wrap the dead, excavated at a Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, carbonized in a fire and radiocarbon dated to c. 6000 BC. Evidence exists of flax cultivation from c. 8000 BC in the Near East, but the breeding of sheep with a wooly fleece rather than hair occurs much later, c. 3000 BC.Light: Around 300 BCE, Euclid wrote Optica, in which he studied the properties of light. Euclid postulated that light travelled in straight lines and described the laws of reflection and studied them mathematically. He questioned that sight is the result of a beam from the eye, for he asked how one sees the stars immediately, if one closes one's eyes, then opens them at night. In 55 BCE, Lucretius, a Roman who carried on the ideas of earlier Greek atomists, wrote: The light and heat of the sun; these are composed of minute atoms which, when they are shoved off, lose no time in shooting right across the interspace of air in the direction imparted by the shove.Flight: Centuries before Ibn Firnas attempted to fly the Chinese experimented with manned kites.Modern chemistry: Anglo-Irish chemist Robert Boyle (1627–1691) is considered to have refined the modern scientific method for alchemy and to have separated chemistry further from alchemy. ... Boyle is also credited for his landmark publication The Sceptical Chymist in 1661, which is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry.Robotics: Concepts akin to a robot can be found as long ago as the 4th century BC, when the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical bird he called "The Pigeon", which was propelled by steam. Yet another early automaton was the clepsydra, made in 250 BC by Ctesibius of Alexandria, a physicist and inventor from Ptolemaic Egypt. Hero of Alexandria (10–70 AD) made numerous innovations in the field of automata, including one that allegedly could speak. Aristotle speculated in his Politics (ca. 322 BC, book 1, part 4) that automata could some day bring about human equality by making possible the abolition of slavery. In ancient China, an account of automata is found in the Lie Zi text, written in the 3rd century BC, in which King Mu of Zhou (1023–957 BC) is presented with a life-size, human-shaped mechanical figure by Yan Shi, an "artificer".Cataracts: The lens can also be removed by suction through a hollow instrument. Bronze oral suction instruments have been unearthed that seem to have been used for this method of cataract extraction during the 2nd century AD.Spherical Earth: The earliest reliably documented mention of the spherical Earth concept dates from around the 6th century BC when it appeared in ancient Greek philosophy but remained a matter of speculation until the 3rd century BC, when Hellenistic astronomy established the spherical shape of the Earth as a physical given.I THINK THIS SHOWS THE STATE OF ISLAM, THAT IN 1400 YEARS, THERE HAS BEEN A HANDFUL OF SMART PEOPLE WHO WORKED ON OLD INVENTIONS, WHILE ALL THE MANY BILLIONS OF OTHER MUSLIMS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING BUT TO LIVE AND TO DIE.