History - hanzhi713/Flowers-Curve GitHub Wiki

Flowers curve was invented by Binglie Yang (1937-2003), the first Chinese citizen who won the "state award for inventions". Yang is the co-founder of the Shanghai Institute of Technology, the predecessor of the Shanghai University of Technology. Yang’s whole life was centered on invention.

Yang invented flowers curve in the second half of his life. There are 12 sets of rulers for drawing the flowers curve nowadays, three of which were designed by Yang’s son, Wenjie Wu. Yang said that the point of making new drawing kits is creation. He believes that it is the gracious professionalism of a craftsman, a tiring process though it is.

Yang was always very keen to observe and record tiny patterns in his daily life. He liked to eat biscuits very much. He once noticed that the holes in a biscuit follow a regular pattern. Inspired by that pattern, he had initial ideas for the flowers curve.

"The nation wants to patent Yang’s invention, but he said that that was too complicated to apply for." said Yang’s son, reminiscing. "The flowers curve is not well-known today, and many kids even have never heard of it. But actually, it can be seen everyday, on the front and the back of the Chinese yuan".

Yang had repeated his statement many times: "My invention is not my private property. It is an invention for the mankind."

Excerpted and translated from http://news.wmxa.cn/shehui/201801/533652_3.html