Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Medical engineer and chemist, Thomas Midgely Jr, was part of a team that developed tetraethyllead (known as TEL - an additive used in gasoline) and chlorofluorcarbons (CFC's - one of the damaging elements of ozone). However, after contracting polio in later life, he invented a complicated system of pulleys and ropes to assist movement while bedridden. Can you guess the outcome?
2. After carrying out numerous tests with dummies dropped from the fifth floor of his apartment building, Frantz Reichelt, an Austrian born French tailor, died when he jumped from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower in February 1912. He was convinced that his invention would save the lives of aviators, should they ever be forced to leave the aircraft during flight. For what invention did he pay the ultimate price?
3. William Bullock was an American inventor, born in 1813. His invention, the rotary printing press, revolutionised the printing industry, due to its speed and versatility. However, after an unfortunate incident, Bullock died due to an injury sustained while making an adjustment the press. What was the injury that Bullock sustained?
4. Marie Curie, the French-Polish physicist and chemist, pioneered research in radioactivity. She is the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in different sciences (for Physics in 1903, and Chemistry in 1911). She discovered two elements, Polonium and Radium, developed a technique for isolating radioactive isotopes (isotopes are atoms with the same atomic number, but different atomic masses, due to the nucleus having the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons) and a theory of radioactivity. How did this remarkable lady die?
5. Valerian Ivanovich Abakovsky was the inventor of a high speed railcar, the "Aerowagon". It was fitted with an aeroplane engine, and propeller traction. Designed to transport Soviet officials, the railcar was tested during a maiden voyage between Moscow and Tula. The passengers arrived safely, but on its return trip, what happened to the "Aerowagon", resulting in the death of all aboard?
6. Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of human aviation known as the "Glider King" and later as the "Father of Flight" . He was the first person to make numerous successful flights in a glider. He convinced scientists and the nation that human flying machines were indeed a possibility. In August 1896, he returned to one of his favourite places to undertake another routine flight. The weather was ideal. His first flight was successful, carrying him 350 meters, but during his second flight, the engine stalled. He attempted to correct the problem, by thrusting his body weight backwards. What caused his death?
7. J. G. Parry-Thomas was chief engineer at Leyland Motors and successfully applied for and received a number of patents for automotive and electrical engineering. While trying to regain his land speed record at Pendine Sands in 1927, one of the chains that drove his much loved motor vehicle, Babs, came loose while he was travelling at 270km per hour. What was the outcome of this mechanical failure?
8. Invented as a severe and lethal punishment by Li Si of the Qin Dynasty (221-208BC), it involved 5 inhumane and cruel forms of disfigurement, the final phase leading to a certain death. What was the name given to this method of execution, to which Li Si himself succumbed?
9. Henry Winstanley, a British engineer, constructed the first Eddystone Lighthouse in 1696. This octagonal wooden building was first lit in 1698. Winstanley's lighthouse lasted until the Great Storm of 1703. Winstanley and five others were in the lighthouse making adjustments to the structure. What happened to Winstanley and his crew?
10. In the 1930s, Robert Cornish, researcher at Berkeley, California thought he had discovered how to raise the dead, however his experiments on fox terrier dogs caused such outrage he was asked to leave. By 1947, after continuing work at home, Cornish announced he was ready to attempt a resurrection on a human. Who volunteered?
Source: Author
lmoodie101
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bloomsby before going online.
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