I Invented It But What Was It Again? Quiz

Answer: Alexander Graham Bell

Although Alexander Graham Bell may not have been the real inventor of the telephone he was however the first person to be granted a patent in the US for the telephone in 1876 while working for Bell Laboratories.

There will always be controversy, though, as to who actually developed the telephone, with names like Johann Philipp Reis, Antonio Meucci and others showing up but Graham Bell beat them to the patent.

Telephones have made communications easier and faster for us.

Answer: Percy Spencer

Percy Spencer was an engineer working for the Raytheon Corporation in 1945 when he discovered the process involved in microwave ovens. He observed that microwaves from a radar set, he was working with, melted the candy bar in his pocket. After verifying his observation, Raytheon in October 1945, patented Spencer's microwave oven cooking process.
However, the microwave oven didn't start getting mass produced till the 1950s as the earliest microwave ovens were too massive to keep in a house and consumed a lot of electricity as well.

Answer: Wright Brothers

On 17th December 1903 the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, owners of a bicycle shop, flew a powered propeller aircraft called the Wright Flyer 1 over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The heavier than air aircraft rose to only 10 metres above the ground but it was an event which changed the course of history. It dramatically reduced travelling times between countries and history was never the same again!

Answer: Percy Shaw

The Cat's Eye is a set of 2 pairs of reflective glass spheres mounted on road markings to aid motorists and other travellers at night and especially during fog.
It was designed by Percy Shaw of the UK in the early 1930s and is now used all over the world. Mr Shaw got the inspiration from looking directly into a reflecting cat's eye one night and that's how this device got its iconic name.

Answer: Dr John Pemberton

Coca-Cola was invented by Dr John Pemberton, a pharmacist and Confederate colonel, to be used as medicine during the late 1880s. Later on, Coke was bought over by a businessman named Asa Griggs Candler who made sure via his marketing techniques that Coca-Cola became the most dominant soft drink brand in the 20th century, and it continues to be a leading soft drink brand well into the 21st century.
Although, there are a lot of documented negative effects of Coca-Cola, people still seem to love it.

Answer: Eli Whitney

A cotton gin is a device which separates quickly the cotton seeds from the cotton fibre.
Eli Whitney in 1793 invented the first mechanized cotton gin in America which had the effect of making cotton products and cotton itself into a very profitable business.

Answer: Whitcomb L Judson

Life would certainly be more tedious without the Zipper, which is a device used to bind the edges of any garments, bags and camping gear.
The Zip fastener was created by an American inventor named Whitcomb L Judson and the same basic principle of interlocking teeth is in use in the 21st century.

Answer: Walter Hunt

A safety pin consists of a clasp and a locking mechanism and is used to fasten baby's nappies and torn or damaged clothes. It's used in jewellery as well. The safety pin certainly was more convenient and safer to use than the regular pin as the closed loop formed by the clasp protects the user from the pin's sharp point and also ensures that the pin fastens properly to whatever it is attached to. The safety pin as we know it was invented in 1849 by an American mechanic named Walter Hunt.

He didn't fully recognise the value of his invention as he sold the patent for 400 dollars to W.R Grace and Company in the same year.

The company made millions of dollars selling the Safety Pin in the subsequent years.

Answer: Martin Cooper

After the invention of the telephone, it was only a matter of time before the mobile phone got invented as well.
That finally happened in 1973 and the company Motorola got to unveil the mobile phone to the world.
Martin Cooper, an American, who was the head of the team which developed the first working hand held cellular mobile phone worked at Motorola, an American company.
Joni F Mitchell got his name on the mobile phone patent as well because he pushed for Motorola to research more into wireless products, was the head of Motorola's Portable Communication products and Cooper's boss.

Answer: John Loud and Laszlo Biro

Another essential invention for the ease of our day to day lives. This is a pen which dispenses ink over a metal ball and common metals used for this are steel and brass. It is much cleaner and more reliable than fountain pens or quills.
In 1888, John Loud was issued the patent for a ball point pen but it lapsed because it was not commercially viable due to it being too rough for letter writing.
By 1938, a Hungarian newspaper editor Laszlo Biro teamed up with his chemist brother Gyorgy to create ball point pens using the same ink as the ones used to print news papers as it dried quickly which left the paper dry and smudge free. He got the patent for the ball point in 1938 as well, and due to Biro's success, modern ball point pens are known as biros.