Inventions Questions and Answers

Answer: D

All of these.

Faraday discovered electromagnetic rotation and then induction, isolated benzene, liquefied several gases, and produced heavy optical glass. He had almost no formal education and refused a knighthood.

Answer: A

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.

Kilby built the first working integrated circuit at Texas Instruments in September 1958 on germanium; Noyce at Fairchild produced a silicon version months later with the connections printed on, which is the form the industry adopted. Kilby received the Nobel Prize in 2000; Noyce had died in 1990.

Answer: C

It was patented in 1874.

Joseph Glidden of Illinois patented the design that prevailed. Cheap fencing ended the open range in the American West within a decade, and with it the long cattle drives.

Answer: D

He is Charles Babbage.

His Analytical Engine, designed from 1837, had a store, a mill, punched-card input and conditional branching - the essentials of a computer, a century before one was built. It was never completed.

Answer: B

MIDI was introduced in 1983.

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface let synthesisers from different makers control one another. It was demonstrated at the NAMM show that January and has remained compatible ever since - a 1983 instrument can still talk to one made today.

Answer: B

John Logie Baird invented television.

The Scottish engineer gave the first demonstration of a moving televised image in 1925 and of a recognisable human face in 1926, using a mechanical scanning disc. His system was later displaced by all-electronic television.

Answer: A

George Stephenson invented the railway engine.

He built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington in 1825 and the Rocket, which won the Rainhill trials in 1829 and set the pattern for the steam locomotive. He also fixed the standard gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches.

Answer: C

James Hargreaves invented it.

The Lancashire weaver built the spinning jenny about 1764, letting one worker spin eight threads at once and later many more. Spinners rioted and broke into his house, and he moved to Nottingham.

Answer: D

Louis Pasteur invented it.

He developed the vaccine from dried spinal cord of infected rabbits and used it in 1885 on Joseph Meister, a boy bitten by a rabid dog, who survived. It was the first vaccine created in a laboratory rather than from a natural disease.

Answer: A

Leonardo da Vinci first had the idea.

He sketched a pyramidal parachute of linen about 1485, noting that a man could throw himself down from any height without injury. A modern replica was built and successfully jumped in 2000.