Inventions Questions and Answers

Answer: C

It was the aloha shirt.

Ellery Chun, a Chinese-Hawaiian merchant in Honolulu, had shirts made from leftover kimono fabric and sold them under that name, registering the trademark in 1936.

Answer: C

They were made from 1901.

Joshua Lionel Cowen built an electric train in 1901 as a moving shop-window display; customers wanted to buy the train rather than the goods, and the Lionel Corporation followed.

Answer: A

It was the popsicle.

Frank Epperson left a cup of powdered soda and water with a stirring stick on a porch overnight in 1905; it froze, and he found he could pull it out by the stick. He patented it eighteen years later as the Epsicle.

Answer: B

Thomas Edison invented it.

He sketched the phonograph in 1877 and gave the drawing to his mechanic John Kruesi, who built the machine in about thirty hours. Edison recited 'Mary had a little lamb' into it, and was astonished when it played back.

Answer: A

Jethro Tull invented the seed drill.

The English agriculturist built it in 1701. Sowing seed in straight rows at a set depth, instead of broadcasting it by hand, cut the quantity needed and raised yields sharply - one of the foundations of the agricultural revolution.

Answer: B

Karl Benz.

His Patent-Motorwagen of 1885, a three-wheeler with a single-cylinder four-stroke engine, was patented in January 1886 and is reckoned the first true motor car.

Answer: C

Lewis E. Waterman invented it.

The insurance salesman patented a fountain pen with a capillary feed in 1884, which let air in as ink flowed out and so stopped the pen from flooding the page.

Answer: C

It was the electric train.

Joshua Lionel Cowen built a battery-powered flat car in 1901 to move goods in a shop window. Shoppers wanted the train instead, and Lionel became the best-known maker of toy trains in America.

Answer: A

Milk Tray was introduced in 1915.

Cadbury launched it as an assortment sold loose in trays, from which it takes its name; the box came later. Its advertising in the 1960s built a campaign around a man who delivered the chocolates by daring means.

Answer: B

Alessandro Volta invented the battery.

His voltaic pile of 1800 stacked discs of zinc and silver separated by brine-soaked cloth, and gave the first steady electric current. The volt is named after him.