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[AUG. 19,
2004]
It's time
once again for another invention quiz. This one deals with
invention-related quotes. If you've been reading this column
faithfully each week, then you'll be able to recall some of the
answers from earlier columns.
A few
non-inventors even found their way into our quiz with their quotes.
As is the case with all of our quizzes, the answers are at the end
of the column, and each answer is used only once. Get at least 13
out of 15 correct and you win… you win nothing, other than knowing
that you gave it your all. Now that you're sufficiently motivated,
let's begin.
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Choose from the following answers…
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1. We'll start off with an easy one:
"What hath God wrought?" Actually, he didn't say it, but he
did transmit it over the telegraph that he invented.
2. "Watson, come here. I need you." If
you get this one wrong, then you're in the wrong section. Try the
comics.
3. The only American inventor to
receive 1,000 patents said this: "Of all my inventions, I liked the
phonograph best. Life's most soothing things are sweet music and a
child's good night."
4. This is an easy one to get "wright":
"I confess that in 1901 I said … that man would not fly for 50
years."
5. Originally known as Sam, this
Midwestern inventor was better known for his writings than his
inventions. He showed his high appreciation for inventors when he
said, "Inventors are the creators of the world -- after God."
[to top of second column
in this article]
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6. This 19th-century writer is credited
with saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention." (What he really
said was, "Invention breeds invention.")
7. This 19th-century president said
this about Alexander Graham Bell's telephone: "That's an amazing
invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"
8. In 1895, the inventor of the Kelvin
scale said, "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." Get
this one wrong and you have to start over. Bonus points if you know
what the Kelvin scale is. (It's the absolute temperature scale,
which measures the lowest possible temperature in the universe at a
negative 273 degrees Celsius.)
9. "Everything that can be invented has
already been invented." There's a bit of irony in this one, given
the man's job title.
10. As the only U.S. president to
receive a patent, he said that the patent system "added the fuel of
interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of
new and useful things."
11. "People think of the inventor as a
screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other
people."
12. This inventor further proved that
all things are relative when he said, "No amount of experimentation
can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."
13. "I don't think necessity is the
mother of invention," she said, possibly when riding the Orient
Express.
14. He didn't invent the apple, but he
did discover gravity. He also said, "If I have seen farther than
most men, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
15. When in
Rome, do as the Romans do: "Inventions have long since reached their
limit, and I see no hope for further developments."
Answers:
1. Samuel
Morse; 2. Alexander Graham Bell; 3. Thomas Edison; 4. Wilbur Wright;
5. Mark Twain; 6. Ralph Waldo Emerson; 7. Rutherford B. Hayes; 8.
Lord Kelvin; 9. Patent commissioner Charles Duell; 10. Abraham
Lincoln; 11. Charles Kettering; 12. Albert Einstein; 13. Agatha
Christie; 14. Isaac Newton; 15. Roman engineer Julius Sextus
Frontinus
[Paul
Niemann]
Invention Mysteries is written each
week by Paul Niemann. There's another fun invention quiz at
www.InventionMysteries.com.
© Copyright Paul Niemann 2004 |
