Invention Trivia Questions
Psychologist and inventor William Mouton Marston created the famous
comic book heroine Wonder Woman. What machine did he invent?
A: Polygraph, or lie detector machine.
Necessity is the mother of invention was suggested by whom?
A: Ovid.
Helen Keller dedicated her autobiography, The Story of My Life,
to whom?
A: The great inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who considered himself
first and foremost a teacher of the deaf.
Inventor Joseph Arkwright was responsible for an important
breakthrough in what industrial process in 1768?
A: Spinning Cotton.
Nobel Prize winning inventor William Shockley, admitted that he
had contributed his sperm to a sperm bank in hopes of producing
gifted children. What is he famous for inventing?
A: Transistor.
What was it that Benjamin Holt invented that made farmers happy?
A: Tractor.
Robert Stirling, inventor of the Stirling Engine, had what
occupation?
A: Priest.
Polio
vaccine inventor Dr. Jonas Salk came out of retirement in
1987 because of what disease?
A: AIDS.
William James Morrison, the inventor of the cotton candy machine,
was a what?
A: Dentist.
The crescograph, invented by Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, measures
what?
A: Plant movements.
Who is credited with inventing paper from bark and
hemp in the
second century?
A: Ts'ai Lun.
What inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prize, also
invented what building material?
A: Plywood.
What nationality was Adolph Sax, inventor of the saxophone?
A: Belgian.
At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, what kitchen invention took the
top prize?
A: The Dishwasher.
In 1934 who invented a
car that could carry eleven passengers,
got 30 miles per gallon, and could do over 120 mph?
A: Buckminster Fuller.
A gibus would be worn on what part of the body?
A: On his head - It is an opera hat named for its inventor, Antoine
Gibus. It was a collapsible hat.
How often did Thomas Edison think he should come up with a new
invention?
A: A minor invention every 10 days and a big think every six months
or so.
What invention is Robert Oppenheimer remembered for?
A: Atomic Bomb.
Pocket size radios were made possible by what invention developed
by Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1947?
A: Transistor.
In which century was the shoe lace invented?
A: The eighteenth century.
What was invented by the Sumerians in 3500 B.C.?
A: The plow.
What was it that Edwin Budding invented that changed the face of
English landscapes in the 1820s?
A: The lawn mower.
Who invented the revolving door to keep cold air out of buildings
in winter?
A: Theophilus Van Kannel.
What is Louis Armstrong credited with inventing?
A: Scat singing.
Thomas Edison announced the invention of the
electric battery in
what year?
A: 1902.