Quiz | Easy as Sunday Morning: Practical Inventions!

1 / 10 | Ray Harroon, born January 12, 1879, was an American race car driver who controversially refused to have a mechanic accompany him like other drivers in the inaugural running of the 1911 Indianapolis 500. Ray replaced one of the tasks the mechanic did with a small device he mounted on the top of his windshield. What did he invent that helped him win races and is now found in all automobiles?

2 /10 | René Laennec was a French doctor who was also a flautist. In 1816, he had difficulty diagnosing a young woman who had heart problems due to obesity. Using his knowledge of flute making, what did he invent that has now become a staple of the profession?

3 /10 | Johann Dobereiner was a German chemist who invented the Dobereiner lamp. It was a portable device inside which zinc reacted with dilute sulfuric acid to produce hydrogen. On opening the valve, the gas reaches the platinum sponge which reacts with oxygen to ignite the hydrogen. This was the earliest example of which device?

4 /10 | Charles Goodyear was an American chemist who is credited with inventing the chemical process that made rubber flexible and waterproof. He discovered by accident that adding sulfur under heat gave rubber all the required characteristics. He named the process after the Roman fire god. By what name is this process known?

5 /10 | Sir John Herschel invented the cyanotype process, a slow-reacting photographic printing formulation that is sensitive to light in the near ultraviolet spectrum. The resulting prints had a distinctive color. By what name were they known, which are popular even today?

6 /10 | Sir John Bennett Laws was an English entrepreneur who established an experimental farm. In 1842, he obtained a patent for a process of treating phosphate with sulfuric acid, resulting in ‘superphosphate’. This was the beginning of which industry that revolutionized agriculture?

7/10 | Walter Hunt was an American mechanical engineer who invented a modern version of an object used by the ancient Greeks. They used ‘fibulae’ to help secure their tunics. The hunt consisted of a clasp that covered the point, and a circular bend to act as a spring. What invention did he make in 1849, from which he now earns millions?

8 /10 | John J. Loud received a patent for his invention in 1888 to write on leather and wood products. The fountain pen that people normally used was useless in both cases. It could not be used for letter-writing and the patent eventually expired. What did he invent that we now know in another format?

9 /10 | Robert Gair was a Scottish paper bag manufacturer. One day, by chance, the metal ruler he used to sew the bags cut it. He realized that by cutting and folding thick paper board he could create a premade object that was easy to store. What invention did he make that revolutionized the packaging industry?

10 / 10 | William Halsted was an American surgeon who came to know a scrub nurse named Caroline Hampton in his surgery. She complained of having a painful allergy to the antiseptic used on patients. Halsted contacted the Goodyear Rubber Company to make something for him. What did he introduce into this field that drastically improved the overall sterility of the industry?