Inventions of the 18th & 19th Centuries Quiz

Answer: Abner Doubleday

(The N.Y. Mutuals edged out the Knickerbockers 21-1, in four innings). While what was to later become known as "The National Pastime, baseball was played by troops during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865). It would be 30 years before the National League was formed in 1876, and the American League debuted in 1901. The two leagues met in the first World Series in 1903.

Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 - January 26, 1893) was a lifetime military man, serving from 1842 until his retirement as a full colonel in 1873. He is recognized for firing the first shot in an unsuccessful attempt to save Fort Sumter from the Confederate troops. Doubleday fought in many Civil War battles (including Gettysburg), and also fought in the American-Indian, and Mexican-American wars as well. A graduate of West Point, Abner Doubleday was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 1893.
BTW: (Dr.) James Naismith is the inventor of basketball.
Question & information provided by paulmallon

Answer: Barbed wire

Barbed wire, also known as bobbed wire or barb wire, is a reasonably affordable means of fencing. When contrasted against other time consuming ways of fencing off fields, paddocks and so on, that have taken up many man hours in time gone by, this form of fencing is a God send. Animals soon learn to avoid the sharp spikes on the barbed wires, both those trying to get in and those trying to get out - and humans aren't too fond of them either.

The credit for inventing this type of fencing, rightly or wrongly, goes to Lucien B. Smith of Ohio, USA, who registered the patent for it in 1867. Question and information from Creedy.

Answer: Lawnmower

The concept of the lawnmower came to Edward Budding after seeing a device in a textile mill, comprising of a mounted cutting blade which trimmed the rough edges from woollen cloth to provide a clean cut finish. Prior to this time the most effective method of cutting grass was simply by using a scythe. Budding was granted a patent for his invention in August 1830, and following this the first lawnmower was produced, which was just 19 inches wide and was mounted in a wrought iron frame.

There was an immediate demand for these new machines, particularly from some of the large establishments with extensive lawns. The first machines sold went to Oxford University and to Regent's Park Zoological Gardens in London. Whilst modern lawnmowers are of course far more advanced and user friendly, Edward Budding's prototype machine was undoubtedly the leader in the pack.
Question and information from moonraker2

Answer: Coca-Cola

Pemberton was treated for his wound with morphine, to which he became addicted. He was trying to come up with an elixir that would ease his suffering as well as help free him from his morphine dependence. With the help of Willis Venable (a drugstore owner in Atlanta) he devised a formula which was marketed under the name Coca-Cola.

Pemberton and his son, with the good doctor in rapidly failing health and nearly penniless, sold the right to his formula to Asa Candler for $1,750, and died shortly thereafter. Little could he have dreamed that his homemade tonic would become one of America's most popular known products. Best known by the sobriquet "Coke", it would would produce revenue of over $35bn in 2019.
Question & information provided by paulmallon

Answer: telegraph

Samuel Morse had a colleague named Joseph Henry whose work with electromagnetism caught his attention. That, coupled with the efforts of a friend, Alfred Vail, led to the development of the system of dots and dashes that became known throughout the world as the Morse Code.

The two of them, in collaboration with Leonard Gale, were able to help Morse produce a single-circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery. This in turn sent an electric signal across a wire to a receiver at the other end. Thus the telegraph was born, and long distance communications took a giant leap forward. Question submitted by logcrawler

Answer: It was a shortened version of "engine."

The cotton gin not only opened up a vast new area for cotton cultivation, but created a new demand for slave labor to grow the plant. Over time, millions of African slaves were forced to labor on the cotton plantations. The wealth that cotton brought to plantation owners made them some of the richest people in the nation. The political and economic tensions between the American North (the industrial part of the nation and the South (the cotton part) played a significant role in causing the Civil War.
Question submitted by obiwan04.

Answer: Colt Peacemaker

The Colt Peacemaker was designed as a six round revolver-known as a
"six-shooter". It was first used by the U.S. Cavalry in the Indian Wars, then later by sheriffs and stage coach robbers, ranchers and robbers, heroes and horse thieves alike through the end of the 19th century. During the 20th century, it saw action in both World Wars, the Mexican Revolution, and the Irish War of Independence among others. Both George Armstrong Custer and General George Patton used it (with varying degrees of success).
BTW: The Colt Peacemaker is the state gun of Arizona.
Question and information submitted by paulmallon

Answer: Leo Baekeland

Leo Baekeland was a Belgian chemist who named his new product after himself.
He has been referred to as "The Father of the Plastics Industry" as many of his inexpensive durable items are still in use. Bakelite was a moldable plastic of great strength and it was used in phonograph records, phones and other long-lasting items. Another product that he invented was called "Velox", a type of photographic paper.
Question submitted by logcrawler

Answer: A view from his upstairs window

Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833) was a pioneer in photography and heliography. It was his interest in the areas of lithography and camera obscura that led him to his experiments of trying to create permanent images on paper. Initially he had some success with creating images on paper that was coated with silver chloride, but these images were what we consider today to be negatives, rather than the familiar black and white photographs of earlier times. So Niepce turned his experiments to other methods of coating paper. Eventually he settled on Syrian bitumen which had been used by people for many years to create etchings.

Some time between 1826 and 1827, by spreading a thin coating of bitumen mixed with lavender oil on a sheet of pewter, and combining it with the transient power of the camera obscura, Niepce was able to capture the world's first permanent photographic image - that of the view from his upstairs window. Today we know this image as "View from the Window at Le Gras". Photography had taken its first toddling steps towards the future. Hold that pose, please.
Question and information from Creedy.

Answer: safety pin

Walter Hunt patented the safety pin in 1849 and subsequently sold the patent to a manufacturer. Hunt received $400.00, paid his debt, and went on to other inventions. The manufacturer went on to make millions of dollars from the invention.
Question and information by obiwan04.