List of Korean Inventions and Innovations - Premodern Inventions

Premodern Inventions

• Underfloor heating: Ondol is a Korean underfloor heating system its early forms were found in Korean peninsula and Manchuria. as early as 5000 BCE.
• Movable type printing, transitioned from ceramic type to metal cast type, occurred in 1234 during the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea and is credited to Yun-ui Choe. A set of ritual books, Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun were printed with the movable metal type in 1234. Examples of this metal type are on display in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The oldest extant movable metal print book is the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377.
• Kiln sauna: Hanjeungmak (한증막; 汗蒸幕) is Korean traditional sauna using burning wood of pine to heat a domelike kiln made of stones. The first mention of hanjeungmak is found in the "Sejong Sillok," in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty in the 15th century.
• Active Greenhouse: this type of greenhouses, in which it is possible for the temperature to be increased or decreased manually, appeared in the 15th century Korea. Sanga yorok written in the year 1450 AD in Korea, contained descriptions of a greenhouse, which was designed to regulate the temperature and humidity requirements of plants and crops. One of the earliest records of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty in 1438 confirms growing mandarin trees in a Korean traditional greenhouse during the winter and installing a heating system of Ondol.
• Multiple rocket launcher: Hwacha is a Multiple rocket launcher which was a platform device on wheels that used gunpowder to fire fire arrows, a predecessor of the modern MLRS.
• Pluviometer: Cheugugi was first standardized pluviometer, invented during the reign of King Sejong the Great in Joseon Dynasty of Korea. It was used throughout the country for official purposes.
• Featural alphabet: Hangul is a featural alphabet, wherein the shapes of the letters are not arbitrary, but encode phonological features of the phonemes they represent.
• Soft bullet-proof vest: Myeonje Baegab is a soft bullet-proof vest invented by Kim Gi-du and Gang Yun in the late 1860s in the Joseon Dynasty.