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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Scientists & Inventors
| With his partner, Hendrick Lorentz, this scientist from the Netherlands won the 1902 Nobel because of his work on the influence of magnetism on radiation phenomena. His first name was Pieter. What was his last name? | Down the Ladder: Scientists and Inventors
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Zeeman. Pieter Zeeman was unusually young for a Nobel Laureate, only 37. He was Extraordinary Professor at the University of Amsterdam.
Tombaugh. Clyde Tombaugh, an assistant astronomer at the Lowell Observatory who did not have a degree in astronomy, discovered the planet Pluto on Feb. 18,1930. He died in 1997, aged 91, 67 years after his big discovery!
Edison. Thomas Alva Edison was one of the greatest of inventors, but he also got credit for things invented by memebers of his staff.
| With partner E. Donnall Thomas, this scientist from the US won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his "discoveries in organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease." Joseph is his first name. What is his last name? | Down the Ladder: Scientists and Inventors
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Murray. According to njabr.org, Dr. Joseph Murray worked "with burn victims as a doctor during World War II."
| With two partners, this scientist from the United Kingdom won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001 for discoveries in key regulators of the cell cycle. He is addressed as Sir Paul. What is his last name? | Down the Ladder: Scientists and Inventors
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Nurse. Sir Paul Nurse and one of his partners, Tim Hart, work with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund of London, England.
Einstein. Albert Einstein was probably the greatest mind of his time. He was chosen by "Time Magazine" as Man of the Century.
| This American physicist, born 1915, shared the 1964 Nobel Prize with 2 Soviet scientists for inventing and developing masers. His first name is Charles. His last name? | Down the Ladder: Scientists and Inventors
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Townes. In 1958, Townes and his partner at Bell Labs, Arthur Schawlow, published a paper titled "Infrared and Optical Masers." The development of the laser was a result of this study.
| This American chemist, born 1912, died 1999, won, along with his partner, the 1951 Nobel Prize for discovering plutonium and 3 other elements. He later contributed to the discovery of two more. His first name was Glenn. What was his last name? | Down the Ladder: Scientists and Inventors
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Seaborg. Among many other very significant contributions, Seaborg participated in the discovery of 9 more elements, including americium, berkelium, einsteinium, and seaborgium!
| The electric motor is used extensively in our lives. It is used in our pool pumps, grinding machine, fans, heaters, blow dryers, radios, and most household appliances. Michael Faraday's greatest work was in electricity. Did he invent the electric motor? | The Inventing Quiz
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Yes. Michael Faraday in my opinion was truly one of the greatest inventors of all time. He greatly improved William Hyde Wollaston's failed electric motor. And indirectly without him there wouldn't be dynamos. If you think about it, a dynamo is simply the reverse form of an electric motor.
| Now on to a substance which revolutionized the world of warfare for just over a millennium! It has however been greatly improved by the Swede Alfred Nobel and turned into gunpowder. But prior to gunpowder this substance (which is chemically similar) was used in warfare and even in quarrying. It is rated in F, FF, FFF, FFFF. F being very coarse and FFFF being ground up to a very fine almost dust like substance. This substance is _________ and was invented by the _______? | The Inventing Quiz
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Black powder ... Chinese. Black Powder is a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal. The Chinese were also the first nation to use black powder in warfare and in fireworks.
P.S Berzinite is just a name I made up.
| Have you ever gone 80km/h in 60km/h zone? Did you go to prom night in a limousine? Have you ever been injured and had to be hurried to hospital? Have you ever ordered pizza and the delivery boy was ten minutes early? Have you ever been in a life threatening situation requiring the help of the police? Well you needed a car, first invented by _____? | The Inventing Quiz
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Karl Benz. Mercedes Benz was named after him. The first car engine was gasoline powered, then came diesel and now there's even ethanol!
| This man did ground breaking theoretical work in physics, coming up with many different theories including the theory of relativity. He also won a Nobel Prize in Physics. He was none other than? | The Inventing Quiz
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Albert Einstein. He left Germany after being dismissed from his professorship by the Nazis for being a Jew and spent the rest of his life in the U.S. In 1952 Israel invited him to become its second president, but he declined.
By the way E = MC2 means: Energy is equal to mass multiplied by the speed of light, squared.
| This man pioneered the electro-mechanical industry and is known around the world for his work with morse code transmitters and telegraphy. The unit of electric conductance is named after him. Who was it? | The Inventing Quiz
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Werner von Siemens. He invented the needle telegraph which improved morse code. Electric conductance is not measured in watts (James Watt), it's not measured it voltage (Alessandro Volta) and it's not measured in amperes (Andre-Marie Ampere).
| Today we have many cars, motorbikes, generators, ships, trains, buses and a whole lot more. What do they have in common? They all run on an engine. Early in the 1700s the first type of engine was developed, a steam engine. Who invented this? | The Inventing Quiz
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Thomas Newcomen. Contrary to popular belief the Newcomen engine was the first ever steam engine, later improved greatly by James Watt.
| Dynamite is used for commercial rock breaking and quarrying. It has many uses from mining to large scale construction. It was invented by a Swedish chemist. What was his name? | The Inventing Quiz
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Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel was born in Sweden and he later moved to the U.S.A where he built and managed a factory. He tried several ways to make nitroglycerin safer and easier to use. He in the end, however managed to mix nitoglycerin with a type of clay to make dynamite. (Ascanio Sobrero discovered nitroglycerin).
| Who is generally credited with inventing the petrol/gasoline-powered vehicle? | Interesting Times
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Karl Benz. Karl Benz invented the car with a four stroke cycle gasoline engine in 1885. He received a patent for in January 1886. Today cars run on two types of fuel, gasoline and diesel. Gasoline is what was originally used and is the most popular in cars today. Diesel was invented by Rudolf Diesel in 1910 and is made of recycled vegetable oil such as used oil from fast food restaurants. Although both are used today there is a difference between gasoline engines and diesel engines. One would definitely have interesting times trying to start their car if they put diesel in a gasoline engine or gasoline in a diesel engine. You can't put the wrong kind of fuel in an engine, you'll ruin it. You have to use only gasoline in a gasoline engine and diesel in a diesel engine.
| Who is credited with inventing the siphon system used in flush toilets today? | Interesting Times
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Thomas Crapper. Before the current toilet was invented people had interesting times trying to get to the outhouse, especially in cold, rainy or snowy weather. It was great news to people when the flush toilet was invented and people didn't have to go outside to an outhouse. The flush toilet was invented based on Thomas Crapper's siphon system which he created in the 1880's.
| The vacuum cleaner has seen some interesting times evolving into what it is now. But who was the first person to get a U.S. patent for the invention of the vacuum cleaner? | Interesting Times
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Daniel Hess. Daniel Hess from Iowa invented a vacuum cleaner in 1860 which had a rotating brush that cleaned the carpet much similar to the ones we have today. He received a patent for it on July 10, 1860.
| In 1879, which American decided to shine a little light on the subject with the successful patenting of the carbon-filament light bulb? | Interesting Times
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Thomas Edison . In the 1870s Thomas Edison experimented with the creation of an incandescent light bulb. After some interesting times trying with several metal filaments he found one that worked and his first successful try was October 22, 1879. The bulb ran for 40 hours. In November of the same year he filed for a patent which was granted January 27, 1880. Several months after the patent was granted, Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament that would last for 30 times as long. The first public demonstration of this light bulb was December 31, 1879 in Menlo Park. Mahen Theatre in Brno was the first building to use Edison's invention.
Nils Bohlin. Nils Bohlin was born in 1920 in Härnösand, Sweden. He began work as an aircraft designer for Saab. While he was there he helped design ejection seats. (There had to be some interesting times getting that one right!). In 1958 he joined the safety department for the company Volvo where he invented the three point seat belt in 1959. He recieved a patent for his seat belt in 1962 and it was first introduced in the Volvo 122. In 2002 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He died the same year.
| Who had interesting times after someone else claimed to have invented the telephone before he did? | Interesting Times
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Alexander Graham Bell. Elisha Gray said that he had invented the telephone before Bell did. The two men went to court and Bell won since his invention was patented first. Alexander Graham Bell is credited with saying the first words on a telephone by telling his assistant to "come here" over the phone.
No. In 1905 Frank Epperson, an 11 year old boy at the time, mixed powdered soda with water and forgetfully left it on his front porch overnight. That night the temperature reached record lows and the drink froze with a spoon in it. The next morning when the boy saw it he had the idea that he could freeze fruit drinks with a stick inside it. Eighteen years later he debuted the idea at an amusement park in Alameda, CA and had great success. He named it the "Epsicle ice pop" and got a patent for it. Then he renamed it "Popsicle" at the insistence of his children. In 1925, he sold the rights to the Joe Lowe Company. In 1989, the brand was purchased by Unilever. In 1939 a mascot named Popsicle Pete had interesting times on the radio show "Buck Rogers in the 25th century". In the 1940s the mascot appeared in television commercials and in newspapers.
Percy Spencer. In 1945, Percy Spencer was building magnetrons for radar sets for the company Raytheon. While he was working with them he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. The radar had put off microwaves that melted the chocolate bar. After he realized what he had done he had some interesting times testing the microwave's power. He found out that if you boxed the waves in, the temperature of whatever was in the box would rise rapidly. He filed for a U.S. patent on October 8 and the microwave oven was tested in a Boston restaurant. A couple of years later the first ever microwave was built by Raytheon. It was 5' 11" and weighed 750 pounds and was sold for $5,000.
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