It's the Hot, New Thing! Trivia Quiz

The concept of a shower isn't really an invention so much as a convenient use of gravity; the idea was built out of natural waterfalls and rainfall. The Ancient Greeks are believed to have been the first to harness the more modern idea of the shower, constructing aqueducts and primitive systems to let water flow to a central spout for bathing purposes.

These showers were a lot larger than a modern personal shower-- think more like a locker room or spa-- but they would become quite popular, resulting in the Ancient Romans using the same scheme for their bathhouses.

Though modern flamethrowers might be seen as technologically advanced, the earliest flamethrowers were used as far back as the 7th century AD. With the creation of Greek Fire around the same time, a combustible capable of burning even on water, the flamethrower followed, being constructed as a method of hand-pumping the substance over long distances.

The Byzantines used these early flamethrowers during naval battles, dominating parts of the Mediterranean for centuries. The Chinese would develop flamethrowers of their own a few centuries later based on the Byzantine technology.

Invented in the Song Dynasty in China between the 10th and 13th centuries, fireworks evolved from simpler noisemakers created from bamboo centuries before. Where these two things differ is gunpowder; the Chinese introduced the combustible element to create explosive objects that could be launched into the air, form shapes, create colour, and bring festivity. Fireworks wouldn't make it to Europe for another few centuries, and over time their creation has been enhanced by the applications of different substances. Strontium carbonate, for instance, will make the explosion redder.

Though early versions of the pocket lighter were created in the 17th century, the invention would be refined two hundred years later in 1823 with the German-made Döbereiner's lamp in which hydrogen gas was ignited in a device through heterogeneous catalysis.

Modern lighters are a lot simpler, having been spawned from creative tinkering by soldiers in WWI. The Zippo lighter would be invented in the 1930s and the devices would switch to butane a couple decades after that. Modern lighters create their flames by striking metal to gas-soaked flint.

Russian inventor Franz San Galli is the man responsible for the idea of the radiator having been the one to receive the patent for it in 1857, calling it a hot-box. Indisputably, Russia's probably one of those countries that necessitated its use the most-- it was used to heat buildings during harsh winters by transferring hot water or steam through its piping.

At the same time in history, American inventor Joseph Nason was making similar inventions across the ocean; it's his piping that would become the basis for most modern radiators.

Though the concept of a light bulb was introduced earlier in the nineteenth century, Thomas Edison revealed the incandescent light bulb in 1879, demonstrating a glass bulb containing tungsten filament and an inert gas which, when sparked with electricity, could cause illumination.

The earliest of these bulbs were wildly inefficient and ran very hot; over the next century and a half, bulbs would go through a number of iterations to enhance brightness, colour, power use, heat, and life expectancy.

Though hot metal wasn't a new idea when the toaster was first created in 1906, the invention changed food preparation going forward. Within three years, commercially-sold toasters were already being sold, eventually being built into the pop-up variety (to avoid the user coming too close to hot metal rods) and being bought by homeowners in 1925.

Interestingly, all of these inventions would predate the sale of pre-sliced bread-- that wouldn't be a thing until 1928.

Though the Jacuzzi brand was established in 1915, the men behind the product didn't develop it into the creation it would become known for until the mid-1940s when they added pumps and jets to their fixtures, making them into a tool to aid those with pain from rheumatoid arthritis.

It would take another couple of decades before the application would build into the more typical hot tubs associated with the name Jacuzzi, managing to achieve popularity through clever marketing with past Hollywood stars who pushed it as a luxurious home spa treatment.

A toy first sold to the public in 1963, the Easy-Bake Oven was simple in concept. All users needed to do was mix a couple of small ingredients in little pans, provided with the product, and place the contents inside a box heated by an incandescent light bulb.

Originally created by Kenner, known for their die cast toys and action figures, the product would become part of the Hasbro line in the 1990s. Eventually, with advancements in heating technology, Hasbro would phase out the bulb.

Though different concepts of the e-cigarette have been around since the early twentieth century, the first patent for the e-cigarette was issued in 1965. Did it get traction? Not really. Due to the popularity of cigarette smoking in the sixties and the lobbying from tobacco companies, the e-cigarette got very little notice until the 2000s and 2010s. Eventually, early e-cigarettes would be overtaken by vapes and be seen as a safer and cleaner alternative to traditional tobacco.

It wouldn't be completely untrue, but e-cigarettes would allow their users to ingest slightly less of the still-harmful contents of their inhaled substances.