Sunday quiz | Easy like Sunday morning

1 / 10 |
On this day in 1891, Almon Strowger obtained a patent for the Strowger switch, which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching. He invented it after realising that he had lost a lot of business to a competitor because that person’s wife was a telephone operator who was routing calls away from Strowger. His invention dug the grave for manual telephone operators, effectively burying that profession. Fittingly, what was Strowger’s profession in his town?

2 / 10 |
Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith realised that his athletes lost their fitness during the winter months as all the grounds were frozen. To keep them fit, he invented an indoor sport using a ball and wicker buckets that the janitor used to gather peaches. After every point, they had to use a ladder to retrieve the ball. This was the birth of which global sport?

3 / 10 |
In 1902, Mary Anderson was in New York City on a snowy evening in a taxi. The ride was getting constantly delayed because the driver had to stop every few metres to manually do something in order to drive safely. She went back home, designed a simple device, applied for a patent and then offered it to companies, who all said it had ‘no commercial value’. What was this invention, which is now mandatory for all cars?

4 / 10 |
Emperor Napoleon realised that large armies required regular supplies of quality food, so he offered a huge cash award to anyone who could help with this. Nicolas Appert, a confectioner, realised that food cooked inside a jar and sealed well did not spoil. His invention won him the prize, and was the start of what is now a billion-dollar industry. What did he invent, which was scientifically proven by Louis Pasteur 50 years later?

5 / 10 |
Margaret E. Knight was working at the Columbia Paper Bag company when she realised that the bags they produced were weak and could not withstand pressure on the base, making them unsuitable to carry bulky items. She had an idea, and built a prototype to make a better bag. What did she invent, that is now used by every food delivery company?

6 / 10 |
New Zealander Harold Gillies joined the Royal Army Medical Corps following the outbreak of World War I, where he helped a French dentist repair broken jaws. Seeing him experiment with skin graft techniques, Gillies convinced the English army’s chief surgeon to establish a facial injury ward. While there, Gillies performed more than 11,000 operations, effectively establishing what branch of modern medicine that Sushruta was doing in ancient India?

7 / 10 |
In 1940, Candido _____ invented a hydrotherapy pump as a method of offering relief to his toddler son, who was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Seeing that regular immersion in a bath of hot, aerated water helped him, Candido invented a pump that could be used in a normal tub. This invention soon became a popular addition to bathrooms and hotels worldwide. What was Candido’s family name, which became associated with the invention?

8 / 10 |
Fritz Haber was a German chemist who, along with his assistant, invented the Haber-Bosch process, which is the catalytic formation of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen. Along with BASF (a German company), he was able to scale this reaction to produce commercial quantities of ammonia. This was for a particular use, which brought about a revolution that now helps more than half the world. What was Haber’s invention used for?

9 / 10 |
Lyle Goodhue is credited with an invention that saved the lives of millions of soldiers from malaria during World War II. He developed an apparatus that allowed a fine spray of mosquito repellent to escape through a nozzle mounted on a container. What had he invented, that is now a billion-dollar industry by itself?

10 / 10 |
George Beauchamp was a guitarist who performed in bars and hotels. Hawaiian music became popular in the 1930s, and Beauchamp realised that listeners were not able to hear his slide guitar sound. He used a pair of horseshoe magnets to produce an electrical signal that could be amplified by a speaker. Known as the ‘Frying Pan’ because of its shape, what was this the very first example of?