Who Invented the Dishwasher? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Microwave oven

Percy Spencer (1894-1970) worked as a radio engineer with Raytheon on developing radar tubes. One day late 1945 he noticed that a candy bar in his pocket had melted while he was examining an operating radar installation. After a few experiments, he decided to generate microwaves within a sealed metal container, and concluded these waves made various foods cook at extremely high speed. Spencer commercialized the first microwave ovens in 1945, but as these were gigantic and high-priced, it was not an instant success.
Only the table-top models developed in the seventies proved commercially interesting, and these conquered the residential market in North America, Japan and Europe quite swiftly.
Chocolate fountain machines were invented in the nineties. Sliced bread was invented by Otto Rohwedder in 1912. And the pepper mill was probably invented by Peugeot in 1842.

Answer: Melitta Bentz

While all of these names relate to coffee, it was Melitta Bentz who invented the paper coffee filter bag. Bentz was born as Amalie Auguste Melitta Liebscher in Dresden in 1873. After her marriage to Hugo Bentz, she became a housewife.
Coffee was made around 1900 in different ways. Percolators tended to overheat the coffee, and espresso machines were known to leave traces of the ground beans in the cup. So the best cup (according to Hugo Bentz) was made by pouring nearly boiling water over freshly ground coffee beans, and letting the coffee seep through a linen bag. Alas, Melitta found cleaning the linen bags too cumbersome. So she started experimenting with cheap disposable coffee filter bags, and ended up using blotted paper.
In 1908 Melitta patented her invention and started a plant to mass produce the paper filter bags. The company was temporary out of business during both world wars, but is once again thriving.
Douwe Egberts was a Dutch coffee merchant. Francesco Illy invented an espresso machine, and Jerry Baldwin was one of the founders of Starbucks.

Answer: Teflon

Roy Plunkett (1910-1994) was a chemist employed by the du Pont de Nemours company. An experiment on sealing a gas in a container went wrong, and Roy discovered a waxy substance. A closer look proved this substance was very resistant to corrosion and friction, and Roy Plunkett decided to fit a pan with this substance.

The first anti-stick pan was thus developed. Cornflakes were invented by John Harvey Kellogg and patented in 1878. Hippolyte Mège-Mouries invented margarine in 1869. The story of condensed milk is quite confusing, but it seems Nicolas Appert was the first to condense milk in 1820. 

Answer: Coca-Cola

John Pemberton (1831-1888) was a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia. He invented a drink initially designed to cure a variety of diseases (including headaches and indigestion), which he made from wine, coca leaves and kola nuts. In 1886 he substituted the wine with carbonated water and patented it under the name Coca-Cola.

The cocaine was discarded in 1905. Red Bull was created in 1987 in Austria. Four researchers from the University of Florida created Gatorade in 1965. Sir Thomas Lipton started a tea company in 1890.

His company experimented with iced tea in 1904, but started commercializing the product only in 1964.

Answer: William Painter

Did you ever wonder who invented all these marvellous techniques of conserving beverages and opening the containers without too much spilling? Well, here is the answer.
William Painter (1838-1906) was a mechanical engineer born in Ireland. He settled in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) around 1865. Two of his 85 patents have to do with sealing and reopening a glass bottle (especially containing a fizzing drink - either beer or some kind of soft drink). He used a metal lid with 24 (nowadays 21) dents that fitted tightly on the glass. To prevent chemical reaction of the liquid in the bottle with the metal of the bottle cap, the inside of the cap is protected with some kind of plastic. The bottle opener is a lever placed inside one of the pleats of the cap.
Hyman Frank patented a screw cap in 1872. Kondakow patented the pull tab for canned beverages in 1956. Jaqueson developed an early muselet for champagne bottles in 1844.

Answer: Post-It Note

Arthur Fry was born in Minnesota in 1931. In 1953 he started working at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (nowadays known as 3M). When his colleague Spencer Silver announced in 1968 the invention of a special type of glue (good enough for a temporary adhesion), Fry came up with the idea of applying this new glue onto a piece of paper. After many experiments, the Post-It Note was created and hit the market in 1980.
The knot in a handkerchief is a popular way to remember something. But what if you don't remember what incited you to put a knot into your handkerchief?
The Dictaphone Company was founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1881. It still produces dictation machines, but was sold numerous times - among others in 2006 to Nuance Technologies.
The telephone answering machine has a long and confusing history: not a single person or company has patented this device, but many have contributed. The first commercially successful answering machine was marketed from 1949.
 

Answer: James Dewar

James Dewar (1842-1923) was a Scottish chemist. He was busy with research on liquefied gases, when he came up with the idea of constructing two bottles (one inside the other) separated by a vacuum. This flask could maintain the temperature of the liquid or gas inside for much longer than previous techniques allowed.
Dewar did not take out a patent on his invention. In 1904 a German company claimed the name thermos flask, and an American company (Thermos LLC) which later would acquire the German plant, started mass production of Thermos flasks.
Sax invented the saxophone. Van Musschenbroeck created the Leyden jar, a device storing static electricity. Jan Palfijn came up with the forceps. None of these last three inventions is likely to be used in the kitchen.

Answer: Dishwasher

The first dishwasher patents were handed out in the USA for hand-powered wood devices in 1850 and 1865, but these were neither very practical nor reliable. The first practical hand-powered dishwasher was invented by Josephine Cochrane in 1887, and demonstrated on the World Fair in 1893. In 1929 the German company Miele came with the first electric dishwasher.
Safety matches were invented by a number of people, including the Swedes Gustaf Pasch, Johan Lundstrom and his brother Carl Lundstrom.
Toothpaste has such a long history that the inventors are unknown.
Paper clips would have been patented by Samuel Fay in 1867, although at least fifty other patents exist for the same appliance.

Answer: William Cullen

Cullen (1710-1790) was a Scottish physician and chemist. In 1755 he attached a pump to a container of diethyl ether, resulting in a general cooling effect and the forming of some ice. But Cullen's experiment did not signal the breakthrough in artificial refrigerators. Later inventions by Oliver Evans and Michael Faraday were combined by Jacob Perkins in 1834 and John Gorrie in 1842, but these were also commercial failures.

The first successes in domestic refrigeration were booked in the decade from 1913 until 1922 by several pioneers. Miele, Siemens and Bauknecht were German business people who gave their name to companies specialised in the sale of domestic appliances.

Answer: Cheese slicer

Thor Bjorklund (1889-1975) created his own company in Lillehammer (Norway) in 1927. The Ostehovel is the most important item his company produces: it scrapes cheese into thin slices.
The design of the Ostehovel was inspired by Bjorklunds training as a carpenter. He wanted to use something similar to a carpenter's plane for culinary use, and came up with this tool patented in 1925.
The Ostehovel can also be used on vegetables such as zucchini or cucumber, or on (icecold) butter.
The brothers Ivan and Nazar Lisitsyn would be the inventors of the modern samovar in 1778 (used to make tea). Albert Marsh was one of the people instrumental in developing the first electric toaster in 1909. The outdoor gas grill (type of barbeque) was invented about 1950 by Don McGlaughlin.