American Inventions Trivia

American Inventions Trivia

• Question 1 out of 10

  Who invented the first practical electric light bulb?

  Thomas Edison demonstrated a long-lasting carbon-filament bulb in 1879 at his Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey.

  Nikola Tesla

  Thomas Edison

  Benjamin Franklin

  Alexander Graham Bell

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• Question 2 out of 10

  Who was granted the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876?

  Bell's patent was issued in March 1876; days later he made the famous first call: 'Mr. Watson, come here — I want to see you.'

  Alexander Graham Bell

  Thomas Edison

  Samuel Morse

  Elisha Gray

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• Question 3 out of 10

  In which state did the Wright brothers make their first powered flight?

  The 1903 flight took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina — though the brothers designed and built their Flyer at home in Dayton, Ohio.

  Ohio

  Virginia

  North Carolina

  South Carolina

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• Question 4 out of 10

  Who invented the cotton gin in 1793?

  Eli Whitney's cotton gin could clean cotton fifty times faster than by hand, transforming American agriculture.

  Eli Whitney

  Robert Fulton

  Cyrus McCormick

  John Deere

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• Question 5 out of 10

  Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first successful vaccine against which disease?

  Salk's polio vaccine was declared safe and effective in 1955; he famously declined to patent it, saying it belonged to the people.

  Smallpox

  Measles

  Polio

  Tuberculosis

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• Question 6 out of 10

  Who devised the telegraph code of dots and dashes that carried messages across the country?

  Samuel Morse sent his famous message, What hath God wrought, from Washington to Baltimore in 1844 using the code that still bears his name.

  Samuel Morse

  Alexander Graham Bell

  Thomas Edison

  Guglielmo Marconi

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• Question 7 out of 10

  Which American printer and statesman is credited with the lightning rod and bifocal glasses?

  Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity led to the lightning rod, and he described his bifocals in a letter written in 1785.

  Eli Whitney

  Benjamin Franklin

  Robert Fulton

  Paul Revere

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• Question 8 out of 10

  Henry Ford's moving assembly line, introduced in 1913, mass-produced which car?

  The line at Ford's Highland Park plant cut Model T assembly time sharply and put a car within reach of ordinary families. The Model A came later, in 1927.

  The Model A

  The Thunderbird

  The Model T

  The Corvette

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• Question 9 out of 10

  George Washington Carver is best remembered for his agricultural work with which crop?

  Working at the Tuskegee Institute, Carver promoted peanuts and sweet potatoes as soil-restoring alternatives to cotton and found scores of uses for them.

  Corn

  Tobacco

  Wheat

  Peanuts

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• Question 10 out of 10

  Willis Carrier is credited with inventing which modern comfort in 1902?

  Carrier built a machine to control the humidity in a Brooklyn printing plant, and that design became the foundation of modern air conditioning.

  The refrigerator

  The electric fan

  Air conditioning

  The dishwasher

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