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How many of these little-known clues about inventors can you solve?
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By Paul Niemann

[DEC. 26, 2003]  In this week’s column, we pay tribute to students who are celebrating the fact that school is out for the Christmas holiday … by giving them a quiz.

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How many of these inventors can you match with the following little-known facts about them? Regardless of how well you do, this is the last quiz of the year … I promise.

1. This Frenchman was one of the founders of the theory of electricity.

2. He was a college dropout who conceived of his invention while working in the Arctic.

3. He published a chemical magazine to support his invalid parents when he was in high school, and went on to license his photocopying technology to Xerox.

4. Born to slaves in Missouri and kidnapped by Confederates, he was known as “The Plant Doctor” and later became head of the Department of Agricultural Research at the Tuskegee Institute.

5. His mouse is more than 70 years old.

6. He sometimes gets credit for inventing the game of baseball, and he fired the first shot in defense during the Civil War.



7. His partial deafness helped him concentrate better by being able to block out noise, leading to an invention that helped brighten people’s lives.

8. Conceived the idea of television at age 14.

9. This inventor named his heating process after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, and was $200,000 in debt when he died.

10. She co-founded Mattel before designing a doll which she named for her daughter.

11. Prior to becoming our nation’s first patent commissioner, he opposed the concept of granting patents because he considered them to be an unfair monopoly.

12. He established a company to make corporate jets, was a co-inventor of the world’s first car radio and was sole inventor of the 8-track tape player. He was also born in the same hometown as Mark Twain.

13. One of four famous brothers, he invented a clamping device which was used to strap down the atomic bombs before they were dropped in World War II.

14. The original version of his machine, which led him to start what later became the International Harvester Company, was pulled by horses.



15. Before he became known for the biblical phrase, “What hath God wrought?” he was well-known for his paintings and was commissioned to paint President James Monroe, Eli Whitney and his neighbor Noah Webster.

16. This Canadian golfer invented the do-over in his sport.

[to top of second column in this article]

17. This Canadian minister created basketball at a YMCA; his rules originally called for each team to have nine players, including a goal keeper (yes, a goal keeper).

18. This “man of peace” invented dynamite.

19. He used coca leaves and the cola nut in his recipe for Coca Cola.

 


20. His “cool” invention was first used in southern California long before the NHL had a hockey team there.

Choose the correct answers from the following names. Each answer is used only once.

Ruth Handler
Zeppo Marx
Philo Farnsworth
George Washington Carver
David Mulligan
Chester Carlson
Alfred Nobel
Nelson Doubleday
Thomas Jefferson
Clarence Birdseye
James Naismith
Thomas Edison
Samuel Morse
Walt Disney
Frank Zamboni
Charles Goodyear
André Marie Ampère
William Lear
Cyrus McCormick
Dr. Pemberton
 


 

ANSWERS: 1. Ampère, 2. Birdseye, 3. Carlson, 4. Carver, 5. Disney, 6. Doubleday, 7. Edison, 8. Farnsworth, 9. Goodyear, 10. Handler, 11. Jefferson, 12. Lear, 13. Marx, 14. McCormick, 15. Morse, 16. Mulligan, 17. Naismith, 18. Nobel, 19. Pemberton, 20. Zamboni

You may have noticed a trend developing. The answers to each clue are listed in alphabetical order, according to each inventor’s last name.

Invention Mysteries wishes you a very Merry Christmas!
 

[Paul Niemann]

Invention Mysteries is written each week by Paul Niemann. He can be reached at niemann7@inventionmysteries.com.

Copyright Paul Niemann 2003

Last week's column in LDN: "What kept these inventors from obtaining patents on their own?"

 

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