Things of Yesterday and Today (the toothbrush and other inventions)

Today we have some things we use without realizing that they have existed for many years, even for many centuries. Among them, there is a heap of things that came to us from China. Silk. The oldest little piece of silk discovered in China dates from the year 2570 BCE (Before the Common Era). The transmission of the secret of producing silk from the cocoon to the other civilizations took many centuries, thousands of years, although the research of recent years shows us that in today's India and Pakistan too, the population that lived there knew silk. Silk in China was an instrument that, used in addition to paper — another thing invented by the Chinese — was used as a banknote (paper money). Silk caused a special road to be formed, going out from China as far as Europe, and it was called 'the Silk Road'. Porcelain. It was born in China between the years 200 BCE and 200 CE (Common Era). In Europe it had its success after the 17th and 18th centuries, in France and in Germany. Gunpowder, which was used for weapons, was born in China again on the same dates as paper, in what we call the time of the Han dynasty.

The toothbrush. It was born in China in the 7th century. The photo shows a replica of the first brush from China. Before this they used little pieces of wood as toothpicks, or little pieces of bone. The toothbrush entered Europe after the Renaissance. Before, in Turkey, people cleaned their teeth with what is called miswak, which is made from the branch of a special tree. Another Chinese invention is the kite (filandra). This word filandra I believe comes from Italian and I believe it means the flag that is hung on ships. The oldest text where the kite is spoken of is from the 4th century BCE. But this text was written much later than the invention of the first kite. At the beginning the use of the kite was military. Later they used it to send messages, to signal something, or to measure distances, to frighten the enemy. The kite reached Europe after the 12th century. In the Asian part of Istanbul, in Üsküdar, there is a kite museum that organizes kite competitions, just as is done in other countries like China or Japan.

Paper money. The Chinese began to use paper money from the 7th century. The weight of metal money made the Chinese print on paper the order to pay the same sum to the merchant who went from one place to another. This system came to Italy in the 14th century, and was accepted by all in the 17th century. Toilet paper. The Chinese knew it from the 2nd century BCE. The Romans used a sponge tied to a stick, as in the latrines we see at Ephesus and other ruins. In the Middle East and in the Ottoman empire it was water that served for cleaning. Dental filling. In China it was known from the 7th century CE. The Chinese doctor Su Gong, in the year 659, writes about a filling of tin (kalay) and silver to fill the holes in teeth.

Tea. It is a plant the Chinese used from the 27th century BCE. Tea reached Europe after the 16th century. From China it passed to Japan, to India, and from there to Europe. First it was the missionaries of Portugal who brought this plant. Then it was the Dutch, the English, the Americans — who protested against the English, throwing chests of tea into the sea. Tea entered the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. But local production begins from the year 1938 in Rize. Today in Turkey tea is the drink that comes after water. The fork. Archaeology found the fork in China from the 24th century BCE. This fork had only 2 prongs. Europe came to know this kitchen item through the Byzantines. From the Byzantines it passed to Italy and then to the other countries. The Ottomans, being neighbours, learned it before the Europeans. That is why the Jews expelled from Spain came to know the fork after coming to the lands of the Ottomans.