Inventions Which Answered A Prayer Quiz

Answer: Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg (1395-1468), for the first time in history, made the prospect of affordable printed material for a wide audience a distinct possibility. Nothing like a good book on a rainy day! More immediately it is generally held to have played a key role in the Reformation.

Karl Ferdinand Braun shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi for the development of wireless telegraphy. Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz were involved in the development of the automobile and the petrol engine.

Answer: Aspirin

Felix Hoffman (1868-1946) synthesised this widely beneficial drug but also synthesised one of the most harmful and dangerous drugs known to man, heroin. Before Bayer realised how addictive it was, they sold it as a pain relief to those injured in war and to those in childbirth. Thankfully, it is banned in most countries these days.

Answer: Thermos Flask

A glass engineer and inventor, Reinhold Burger (1866-1954) sold his patent in 1909, making him a very wealthy man.

Answer: Airbag

An airbag inflates because sodium azide reacts with potassium nitrate to produce nitrogen gas. The reactions are caused by collision sensors placed at different points around the vehicle. Airbags have saved many drivers' and passengers' lives since their introduction.

Answer: X-Rays

In 1901 Wilhelm Roentgen (1845-1923) received the very first Nobel Prize for Physics. He never patented his invention because he wanted everyone to be able to use it and benefit from it. He built much of his apparatus himself and first tested his invention on his wife's hand.

Answer: Contact Lenses

Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick (1852-1937) first tried his lenses on rabbits and then had casts made from human cadaver eyes before trying one on himself. He eventually gave up his work because only one in six patients found an improvement in vision.

Answer: Kindergarten

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) had a difficult upbringing after his mother died when he was still a baby and his father sent him to live with an uncle. Froebel married twice but had no children of his own. However, he dedicated his life to the education of very young children.

Answer: MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, also known as MP3, is the most common music data format in use in the early 21st century. The rise of the MP3 has seen the decline in other media formats, such as the vinyl record and the cassette tape.

Answer: Corkscrew

The Reverend Samuel Henshall (1765-1807) received patent #2061. This was the first documented patent given for such a device. It was a simple yet effective method of removing a cork from a bottle. No more bits of cork in your bottle.

Answer: The telephone

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 1882 and died in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1922. As well as his work on the telephone, Bell was well known for his establishment of a school for teachers of the deaf and he was also a founding member of the National Geographic Society.