Invention Trivia Questions with Answers About Inventors and Inventions Like Coffee Filters, aerosol dispensers, Coca-Cola bottle, zipper, lawn mower, the fax, refrigerator, and More!.
Great fun inventing and invention trivia questions.
Who invented the coffee filter?
A: Melitta Bentz in Germany in 1908. To improve the the quality of
coffee for her family, she pierced holes in a tin container, put a
circular piece of absorbent paper in the bottom of it and put her
creation over a coffee pot.
What were the first products marketed in aerosol containers?
A: Insecticides. The aerosol dispenser was developed and
patented by American chemist Lyle D. Goodhue in 1941.
What toy did American author John Dos Passos invent and have
patented in 1959?
A: A "toy pistol that blows soap bubbles," which he co invented with
three friends. They designed it in Dos Passos's kitchen for
his daughter Lucy, when she was six years old.
According to Raymond Loewy, the industrial designer who
introduced streamlining to packaging, what are the two most
perfectly designed containers ever made?
A: The old Coca-Cola bottle and the egg.
What essential piece of office equipment did Johnann Vaaler
invent in 1900?
A: The paper Clip.
What Scottish innkeeper's son invented the thermos bottle in
1892?
A: Sir James Dewar, who later invented cordite, the first smokeless
explosive.
Who invented the aerosol valve in 1949?
A: Richard Nixon's buddy, Robert Abplanalp.
Who invented the Johnny Mop, the disposable toilet bowl cleaner
on a stick?
A: Dorothy Rodgers, wife of composer Richard Rodgers.
What did Englishman Edwin Budding invent in 1830?
A: The lawn mower, or as he described it: "machinery for the purpose
of cropping or shearing the vegetable surface of lawns.
On what wardrobe item did zipper inventor Whitcomb Judson use his
first "clasp locker" in the late nineteenth century?
A: A pair of boots.
Who invented charcoal briquettes?
A: Henry Ford, to make use of scrap wood left over in the
manufacture of the Model T.
What mother's aid did Marion Donovan patent in 1951?
A: The disposable diaper.
Who is second only to Thomas Edison in the number of U.S. patents
granted for inventions?
A: Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera.
What famous circus performer introduced the flying trapeze?
A: French Aerialist Jules Leotard, who also invented the tights we
call leotards.
A certain Capt. Hanson Gregory is credited with a curious
invention: It has neither weight nor density; it can be seen
but not felt. What it it?
A: The donut hole.
What piece of modern office equipment was first developed in 1842
by Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain?
A: The facsimile machine--better known as the fax. Bain was granted
a patent in 1843 for his electro-chemical duplicating telegraph
system, which was capable of transmitting crude images short
distances.
What household appliance designed for Sears, Roebuck and Company
by visionary engineer Raymond Loewy won first prize at the Paris
International Exposition in 1937?
A: The refrigerator.
Who invented the first hideaway bed ever patented in the United
States?
A: Thomas Jefferson. The bed was hoisted and secured to the
ceiling when it wasn't in use.
What common plastic produt do we owe to Nathaniel "C. Wyeth--son
of artist N.C. Wyeth, brother of artists Andrew, Carolyn and
Henriette Wyeth, and uncle of artist Jamie Wyeth?
A: The now-ubiquitous plastic soda bottle. He developed it as an
engineer for the DuPont Company.
