Inventions Questions and Answers

Answer: B

It was invented in Tang dynasty China.

Alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality recorded in the ninth century that saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal burned fiercely together, warning that it could singe beards and burn down houses. It was used in warfare from the Song period.

Answer: A

James Watt is credited with it.

Newcomen's engine already existed; Watt's separate condenser of 1765 cut its fuel consumption by three-quarters, and his rotary motion took steam from pumping water out of mines into driving machinery.

Answer: A

Willem Einthoven invented it.

The Dutch physiologist built the string galvanometer in 1903 and used it to record the heart's electrical activity, naming the P, Q, R, S and T waves still used today. He received the Nobel Prize in 1924.

Answer: D

It was the pay telephone.

William Gray installed the first coin-operated telephone at the Hartford Bank in Connecticut in 1889. It was post-pay: the caller spoke first and paid afterwards.

Answer: C

It was the IBM 610.

Introduced in 1957 and called the Auto-Point Computer, it was the first computer meant to be operated by one person at a keyboard rather than by a team feeding cards. About 180 were sold, at $55,000 each.

Answer: A

The Wright brothers invented it.

They flew at Kitty Hawk on 17 December 1903. What set them apart was three-axis control - wing-warping for roll, a movable rudder for yaw and an elevator for pitch - which they worked out with a wind tunnel of their own making.

Answer: A

Jacob Perkins invented it.

He patented a vapour-compression refrigeration machine in 1834, the cycle every refrigerator still uses: a fluid evaporates and absorbs heat, is compressed, and condenses to give the heat up elsewhere.

Answer: A

Charles H. Townes is credited with it.

He built the maser in 1954 and with Arthur Schawlow set out the principle of the optical laser in 1958, sharing the Nobel Prize in 1964. Theodore Maiman built the first working laser, using a ruby rod, in 1960.

Answer: A

Elisha Otis invented the safety brake used in modern elevators.

Hoists already existed but were unsafe if the rope broke. His device of 1852 used a spring that engaged ratchets on the guide rails the moment tension was lost. He demonstrated it at the New York Crystal Palace in 1854 by having the rope cut while he stood on the platform.

Answer: C

Henry Bessemer invented the steel converter.

His process of 1856 blew air through molten pig iron to burn off the carbon, making steel in minutes rather than days and cutting its price by some four-fifths. It made the age of steel possible.