Europe and Bamboo

352 a.C. is the earliest historical important year for Europe which is indirectly associated to bamboo. This is the year in which the first egg masses of silkworms have been smuggled from China to Konstaninopel in bamboo canes. The monks, which carried these canes under danger to their lifes, started the impulse to the downfall of the lucrative "silk road" which was crossing Asia for many centuries.

1626 the German botanist G.E.Rumpf published a paper in which he descibed 24 kinds of pipe tree trunks and their application. 
He spreaded the first knowledge about bamboo. But today's name has however later.

1778 Linne neoterised the name Bamboo into natural sciences following the Indian word “Mambu” oder “Bambu”.

In addition, 1839 and 1838 chronicles from F.J.Ruprecht and P.Munro appeared. Beside these notes, the information flow from the Tropics to Europe remained small.

Hundred years ago the public was marveled at  the electrical light bulb from Th.A.Edison, which glowed with charred bamboo fibres.

Press note from “The New Universe” 1880:
In the Prussian army recently two Ulanen regiments were provided with lances made of bamboo, which apart from other advantages still are another kilogram lighter then the ones used so far. 

Once, a Chinese scientist investigated all types of usage; he came to 1385 examples for bamboo applications (Lüpke 1961).