Douglas Engelbart, the man who invented the computer mouse, would have been 90 on January 30. As a tribute, this week’s quiz is on inventions.
The debut 1) What did James Ritty, the owner of a popular restaurant named Pony House, invent in 19th-century Ohio that is still used around the world?
2) Which invention of British railway engineer JP Knight was first installed outside London’s Houses of Parliament in 1868? Again, something very much around!
3) This is a rare case where one corporation wanted to credit an invention to their biggest rival. The product was originally called ‘Old Sparky’. What was the invention? Why did a rival company want to credit them?
4) Which culinary product was born when Englishman Richard Blechynden felt there was no use for his normal products on an unusually hot day during the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904?
5) On June 26, 1974, in what way did a Wrigley’s 10-pack fruit gum purchased in Troy, Ohio, herald a first in consumer experience?
6) Which famous 19th-century writer is believed to have invented the game of snow golf, using red balls, while writing one of his popular novels based in India? He was in Vermont at the time.
7) Which invention was called the ‘noisy serpent’ when it first came out in 1902? People actually threw parties so that their neighbours could see it at work?
8) Jeanette ‘Jennie’ Jerome was born in Brooklyn in 1854 and is regarded as the person who commissioned the first-ever ‘Manhattan’ cocktail to celebrate the election of Samuel Tilden as the governor of New York. However, she is better known as the mother of one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century. Who was Jennie’s son?
9) What was invented in 1816 because a certain Rene Laennec was uncomfortable getting too close to female chests?
10) What did Reverend Jonathan Scobie invent in 1869 to transport his invalid wife around the streets of Yokohama?
Answers
1. The cash register. Ritty worried about dishonest clerks and called it the ‘Incorruptible Cashier’
2. Traffic lights. They were manually controlled by policemen for a few years before becoming automated
3. The electric chair for condemned criminals. Thomas Alva Edison wanted to prove that Westinghouse’s alternating current was more dangerous than the direct current used by them, so they kept advertising large animals killed by AC. Westinghouse finally patented the chair
4. Ice tea. Blechynden realised nobody was interested in the normal tea
5. It was the first-ever product purchased using a bar code, and started a revolution in retail shopping
6. Rudyard Kipling. He was writing The Jungle Book at the time
7. The vacuum cleaner invented by Hubert Cecil Booth
8. Winston Churchill. Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill
9. The stethoscope. Laennec was one of the foremost French physicians of his time
10. The rickshaw, far more popular in other parts of the world
Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup
Follow Joy on Twitter @joybhattacharj