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New Kensington, Pennsylvania Trivia Quiz

This tiny place, near Pittsburgh, punches way above its weight. See if you can answer these 10 questions.

A multiple-choice quiz by steveastrouk. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
steveastrouk

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
404,395

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
7 / 10

Plays
111

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. New Kensington features high in the list of key inventions of the 20th century. Which of these firsts is true of New Kensington? Hint

First sighting of Bigfoot in the U.S.

First discovery of oil in Pennsylvania

First industrial production of aluminum

First steel mill in the world

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Question 2 of 10

2. What was the name of the aluminum company that first monopolized production of what rapidly became a highly strategic metal? Hint

Bethlehem Steel

Kaiser

Alcoa

Carnegie

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Question 3 of 10

3. To this day, the production of aluminum (which is no longer carried out in New Kensington) relies on a process invented by an American and a Frenchman. Can you name them? Hint

Haber - Bosch

Hanna - Barbera

Tom - Jerry

Hall - Heroult

4. Until the invention of the process which "powered" New Kensington, the production of aluminum was a very hard lab scale process. Aluminum hates not being attached to oxygen! Who was the first scientist to release aluminum from its bonds? Hint

Michael Faraday

Sir Humphrey Davy

Joseph Henry

Benjamin Franklin

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Question 5 of 10

5. Police and military personnel the world over owe their lives to a key invention of another New Kensington native, a chemist who created the first aramid fibers in the 1960s. Can you give the commercial name of the product? Hint

Teflon

Kevlar

Nylon

Flubber

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Question 6 of 10

6. "Aramid fibers" were invented by a pioneering chemist born and raised in New Kensington, very close to the center of the city. Who was it? Hint

Stephanie Kwolek

Rosalind Franklin

Andrea Warhol

Katherine Johnson

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Question 7 of 10

7. One photo, taken by a New Kensington resident, shows a grisly scene between a South Vietnamese general and an enemy soldier. Who was the general? Hint

Ho Chi Minh

Pol Pot

Mao Tse Tung

Nguyen Ngoc Loan

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Question 8 of 10

8. In the 1950s, satirist Tom Lehrer sang a song about the obituary of the former wife of an architect who brought European Bauhaus architecture to the USA. This architect created a unique community in, or on the edge of, New Kensington. The community is called "Aluminum Terrace". Who was it? Hint

Frank Lloyd Wright

Christopher Wren.

Le Corbusier

Walter Gropius

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Question 9 of 10

9. Aluminum Terrace is a unique community. It is organized on "co-operative" principles, a movement founded in England, where workers owned their own enterprise and kept the profits. Residents of Aluminum Terrace buy into their homes, as renters, but the surplus is reinvested into repairs and improvements.

Where, in England, did the co-op movement begin? Hint

Toad Lane, Rochdale, Lancashire

Mosely Street, Manchester

Fleet Street, London

Penny Lane, Liverpool

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Question 10 of 10

10. A famous Vietnam-era photograph shown around the world shows a summary execution and was taken by a New Kensington native. Can you name him? Hint

Edie Sedgwick

Man Ray

Patrick Litchfield

Eddy Adams

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. New Kensington features high in the list of key inventions of the 20th century. Which of these firsts is true of New Kensington?

Answer: First industrial production of aluminum

New Kensington had spare land, water access, abundant local supplies of coal for energy, and wasn't far from the first lab scale tests of the process. The first production of aluminum was in 1891.

2. What was the name of the aluminum company that first monopolized production of what rapidly became a highly strategic metal?

Answer: Alcoa

The Aluminum Corporation of America soon became known by an acronym - AlCoA. Almost until WWII there were few alternatives to Alcoa materials - something that the US government fixed early in the war and after Alcoa faced a serious monopoly enquiry.

3. To this day, the production of aluminum (which is no longer carried out in New Kensington) relies on a process invented by an American and a Frenchman. Can you name them?

Answer: Hall - Heroult

The process relies on lots of electrical power to break the metal away from its oxide, to which it is very tightly bound. It was invented independently by Charles Hall and Frenchman Paul H�roult.

Answer: Sir Humphrey Davy

Humphry Davy made major contributions to science and human safety - creating a lamp which allowed flames to be safely exposed in coal mines for example, as well as discovering aluminum (which he named). At one point, a young man who was keenly interested in science applied for a job with Davy - and the career of Michael Faraday, pioneer of electrical science, began.

Joseph Henry was an early American physicist with many contributions in electrical physics - for whom the "Henry" unit of inductance is named.

Franklin needs little introduction. He was the first to demonstrate that lightning is an electrical phenomenon.

Answer: Kevlar

Five times stronger, by weight, than steel, Kevlar fibres are so tough, ceramic cutters are usually used to handle the material.

6. "Aramid fibers" were invented by a pioneering chemist born and raised in New Kensington, very close to the center of the city. Who was it?

Answer: Stephanie Kwolek

Kwolek died in 2014, at the age of 90. She spent her whole professional career at DuPont in Delaware.

She was a brilliant polymer chemist, despite falling into chemistry "by accident" - she'd wanted to become a doctor, but she was recruited into DuPont and never left.

Of the wrong answers, Andrea Warhol is an imagined person, Rosalind Franklin is recognized now as one of the co-discoverers of the properties of DNA and Katherine Johnson, who died in 2020 at 102, was one of the three unique black women celebrated in the book and movie "Hidden Figures" for their work on the space program in the 1960s.

7. One photo, taken by a New Kensington resident, shows a grisly scene between a South Vietnamese general and an enemy soldier. Who was the general?

Answer: Nguyen Ngoc Loan

Though the picture is considered a classic shot of brutal summary justice, the story is more complicated. The VC member, in civilian clothes, had been caught moments before after killing a South Vietnamese general, a friend of Loan's, his wife, children and mother.

Answer: Walter Gropius

His wife was Alma Mahler, and she married firstly the composer Mahler, then after an affair, married Gropius - a truly key figure in modernism, joined by two of the wrong answers being Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.

Christopher Wren was the architect of modern London, after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Answer: Toad Lane, Rochdale, Lancashire

The "Rochdale Pioneers", a small group of textile workers, joined together and eventually created the "Rochdale Principles" underpinning the co-op movement, which influenced much of European social democracy.

Near the JFK Airport in New York is a development taking its name from the birthplace of the movement and under its principles.

10. A famous Vietnam-era photograph shown around the world shows a summary execution and was taken by a New Kensington native. Can you name him?

Answer: Eddy Adams

Adams, who died in 2004, always regretted the photograph, and defended Loan, the perpetrator of the execution to the US immigration authorities. Loan died in 1998.

Sedgwick was the muse of Andy Warhol, originally a Pittsburgh native. Litchfield was a British fashion photographer. Man Ray was a brilliant photographic process innovator, and an art and fashion photographer.

Source: Author steveastrouk

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor trident before going online.
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