Where Did You Get That Name? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Braille

Louis Braille, born near Paris in 1809, was blinded as a three year old in an accident in his father's harness making workshop. He attended the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris where at the age of 12 he learned the new, but difficult method of 'night writing' using 12 raised dots invented by Charles Barbier. Braille then modified this complex system into the six raised dot patterns that are used today.

Each group of six dots, arranged in two parallel rows of three dots, is known as a cell, the basic 'unit' of Braille writing. There are 64 combinations that include one or more dots. Newly blinded people usually learn Grade 1 Braille, where each combination represents a letter. This is then extended in Grade 2 Braille where numbers, punctuation and several full words are also included.

Answer: Aspirin

Aspirin, one of a class of compounds known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), has several modes of action: it is anti-pyretic which reduces fever, an anti-inflammatory and an analgesic resulting in pain relief. The trademark for the name was established by Bayer in the late nineteenth century.

As part of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) concluding World War I, Aspirin lost its status as a registered trademark in the UK, USA, France and Russia. The drug with a small 'a' (aspirin) is a generic name throughout the world, but with a capital 'A' is still a registered Bayer trademark in over 80 countries. The widespread use of aspirin declined in the mid-twentieth century as new pain relievers came on to the market (such as acetominophen and ibuprofen with their various trade names), but aspirin usage in the twenty-first century has risen sharply due to the finding that this drug is helpful in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

Answer: Zeppelin

Count Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin, born in 1838, was a German officer who fought in the Austro-Prussian war of 1867 and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Earlier he was also an observer for the Union's 'Army of the Potomac' where he also visited Lowe's 'Balloon Camp' which led eventually to his ascent in Steiner's captive balloon.

He founded his airship company after resigning his army commission in 1891. His company's designs for an aluminum frame covered with a fabric envelope, multiple internal gas cells and a rigidly attached gondola eventually came to fruition and he made his first flight over Lake Constance, Germany, in July 1900. Several successful flights, crashes and publicity led to cash being raised to establish the Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin GmbH (company).

Answer: Velcro

Velcro, a registered trademark of the Velcro Company, is a portmanteau (combination) of the two French words velours (velvet) and crochet (hook). Velcro was invented in 1948 by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral, who was inspired by how the hooks on burdock burrs (natural seed) stuck to his socks and his dog's fur.

He originally tried to use cotton materials, but switching to the recently developed nylon allowed creation of a successful product. Velcro got its big break when it was used by NASA to help astronauts get into and out of bulky space suits.

Answer: Yo-Yo

The earliest yo-yos have been traced back to 500BC and were made from two terra cotta disks decorated with mythological figures. A Greek vase from this time shows a picture of a boy playing with a yo-yo. Although there are pictures and records of people using yo-yos through the 18th and 19th centuries, the large-scale uptake of the toy didn't kick off until 1928. In the space of one year, the Flores Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company in California (Santa Barbara), went from a dozen hand made toys to making 300,000 yo-yos per day! In 1929, Donald Duncan recognized the huge potential for further growth and bought the Flores company and all its assets. The name yo-yo was then registered as a trademark. Sales of the yo-yo declined during World War II and through the 1950s. However, a highly successful television advertising campaign in the early 1960s rekindled the yo-yo market and it has waxed and waned ever since. A court case in 1965 upheld the suggestion that 'yo-yo' had become such a generic word it should no longer be subject to trademark restrictions on its use.

The Duncan yo-yo was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Answer: Calorie

Calorie comes from the Latin 'caloris' meaning heat. One calorie is the energy required to raise 1 g of water by 1°C. 1 calorie is equal to 4.168 Joules, where the Joule was named after nineteenth century English physicist and brewer, James Prescott Joule.

The Volt is a unit of electromotive force (or electrical potential) named after Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), while the Watt is a unit of Power, named after Scottish engineer James Watt (1736-1819) and is equivalent to Joules per second.

Answer: Maverick

Samuel Maverick (1803-1870) was born in South Carolina and eventually made his way to Texas after completing his legal studies. Settling in San Antonio, he developed his business interests including cattle. He left a small herd with slave caretakers and refused to allow the cattle to be branded (which gave rise to their name of 'mavericks').

The term then became synonymous with non-conformist views. Maverick served in the Texas legislature as a Democrat (1851-1863) with strong views in favor of supporting German and Mexican landholdings, improved transportation and a fairer judicial system.

Answer: Dry Ice

Dry ice (carbon dioxide in the solid form) is easily prepared by pressuring and refrigerating high concentrations of the gas. It is used extensively in the food industry as a portable refrigerant, and is commonly seen in ice cream vendors' carts. Under most conditions it changes from the solid phase directly to the gas phase ('sublimation') without passing through a liquid phase. Added to water, it creates the clouds of 'smoke' that are popular as stage attractions at concerts and other live performances.

The 'smoke' is actually water droplets in the air that have condensed due to the cold temperatures. Apart from a serious risk of cryogenic burns from handling dry ice without gloves, it poses little threat to human health unless used in an enclosed room where the increase in carbon dioxide gas over time poses a suffocation hazard.

Answer: Heroin

Heroin is a morphine analogue, meaning its chemical structure is very similar to that of morphine. It is prepared by adding two acetyl groups to the morphine molecule. Morphine is one of two alkaloid compounds derived from opium poppies (the other being codeine).

In 1897, chemist Felix Hoffmann working for Aktiengesellschaft Farbenfabriken (the forerunner of Bayer) was directed to synthesize an analogue of morphine that would be less potent and addictive. Up until 1910, diacetylmorphine was sold under the trademark name 'Heroin' as a cure for morphine addiction and as a cough suppressant(!).

It was then withdrawn with much embarrassment after it was discovered heroin rapidly metabolized in the body to morphine and was two and a half times more potent than morphine itself.

Answer: Pasteurization

The purpose of Pasteurization is to greatly reduce the number of pathogenic organisms in milk so that it doesn't spoil quickly due to microbial growth nor cause disease. The process was named after Louis Pasteur who, along with Claude Bernard, completed the successful process in 1862. They added the cooling process to the heating stage already used to prevent wine and beer going sour. Heating of wine to avoid spoilage has been known in China since 1117 AD. Much more recently, 'long life milk' is treated with an augmented Pasteurization process where the milk is held at a much higher temperature e.g. 135°C (275°F) for a minimum of one second.

Amongst his many achievements, Pasteur also developed the vaccines for rabies and anthrax.