7 Ancient Technologies That Used Amazingly Advanced Science

4. Chinese Earthquake Detector - Seismographs

In terms of awesome new technology, the ancient Chinese were definitely ahead of the pack. As well as inventing everything from fireworks to toilet paper, they also casually found a way of detecting earthquakes up to 500km away, and even figuring out where they occurred.

This first ever seismoscope was demonstrated in 132 AD by a Chinese inventor named Zhang Heng. It consisted of a large vessel with eight dragon heads around the outside at the main points of the compass. When an earthquake was detected a ball would drop out of one of the dragons' mouths and drop into a bowl below. Where the ball came out would indicate where the Earthquake was. We're not exactly sure of the mechanism, but it's thought that the large vessel contained a delicately balanced stick. When a tiny shock wave passed through, it would cause the stick to fall over in a certain direction, pushing the ball out of a certain dragon.

Although people of the time had no idea about tectonic activity or what caused earthquakes, modern day scientists have managed to reproduce the device and successfully detect four different real-life earthquakes. The thing was so accurate that it matched the readings taken from our modern instruments.