Sounds of the Century Trivia Quiz

Answer: To ring a bell to let attendants know that you needed fuel

Years ago, there were no self-service gas stations. All offered full service, with fuel pumped by attendants. The air lines were laid across the drive-through area beside the pumps. When you drove over the lines, a bell would ring inside the station. This alerted the attendants that someone needed fuel.

The attendants would fill the tank, and while that was happening, they would wash the windshield and check the oil. How's that for full service? When things switched to a self-serve mode at most gas stations, the air lines and bells were removed.

Answer: No

Rotary phones had at least two interesting sounds. When dialing them, there was a distinct whirring noise as the finger was inserted into the hole that corresponded to the desired number, then pushed the dial around to the finger stop. A very similar whirring sound was made as the dial made its way back to its resting position.

Then, there was the ring. All rotary phones sounded quite similar because the ring was made by an actual bell inside of them. The ring was a very distinctive "rrrrring". That sound can be downloaded as a ringtone for smartphones today.

Some of the old rotary phones hung on walls instead of sitting on tables.

Answer: A ding

Each of the sounds listed were encountered when using a manual typewriter. When the paper was inserted and the user set the margins, a bell would sound when they neared the right-hand margin as they typed. That was a signal that they had to stop typing and push the carriage on the left side back over to the right.

This returning of the carriage made sort of a "zippp' sound. While typing, they keys made a rather loud clacking noise as they were forced from their resting position up to the paper. When capital letters were needed, the user had to push the "shift" key down.

This elevated the carriage, causing the capital letter(s) to be typed. There was a bit of a "clunk" sound as the shift key was depressed and as it was released.

Answer: percolator

A coffee percolator had a covered basket in which fresh ground coffee was placed. Then, cold water was placed beneath the basket that was held up by a hollow stem that fit through the basket and attached to the bottom of the pot. The percolator was then placed over a heat source.

In most cases, this was a stove or fire, but in some cases electric percolators were used. The heat would heat up the water that would then boil up the tube, hit the lid of the percolator, and seep back through the coffee basket. Percolators generally had a small clear glass extension in the centre of the lid so users could tell how strong the coffee was getting.

They had a very "bloop-hiss" sound as water was forced through the tube and ran back through the basket.

Answer: 4

Flash cubes were quite the invention in the 1960s! They fit to the top of a camera in a special port like the one shown. When film was advanced after taking a photo, it made a rapid clicking sound. It also turned the flash cube port from the flashbulb that had just been used to a fresh one.

The four-sided flash cubes allowed users to take four shots relatively quickly without having to stop and change the flash after each one. Besides being very bright, the flash cubes had a distinct "pop" as they lit up the room.

Answer: Ultra High Frequency & Very High Frequency

Before remote controls were common, television channels had to be selected by turning dials. The VHF (Very High Frequency) channels were numbered 2-13, and the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channels initially were numbered 14-83. To change the channel to watch a different program, the user had to physically go to the television and turn the dial(s) until they got to the show they wanted.

There were "clunks" as the dials were changed, and the "sshhhh" sound of static or "snow" on the channels that did not broadcast a television signal.

Answer: Static

If a record player that used a changer for multiple records was used, the first sound that was heard was the record dropping from the centre post onto the turntable. Sometimes, the arm that held the needle would make a creaking sound as it moved into position.

Then, when the needle touched the record, a few seconds of "sshhhh" static was heard before the music started to play. If there was a scratch in the record, the needle would get to that point and would sometimes skip over and over again, playing the last few seconds before the scratch again and again.

Then, when the record was over, the arm that holds the needle would creak its way back to its resting point. That was a lot of sounds to hear besides just the music that was being listened to!

Answer: Test pattern

Before infomercials and 24-hour news, every night at around 2 am, television stations would sign off. They would first announce the end of their day, then provide some technical details like their broadcast frequency, the address of their local studio, and the parent company.

Then, they would play the National Anthem and switch to the test pattern at which point the "beeeeep" would go on and on. Sometimes, the beep sounded through until programming started the next morning at 6 am or 7 am, but other times it would stop after a while even though the test pattern remained.

Answer: Cash drawers opening and change jingling

Back in the 20th century before the advent of scanners, cashiers had to punch prices into cash registers that were like heavy calculators. The button-punching made a rather loud noise. Now, many shoppers pay with cards or phones, but at the time, most shoppers paid with cash.

When the cashier had entered all of the items and announced the total, a drawer would open that had slots for bills and compartments for change. When the drawer flew open, the change would jingle. Another sound shoppers heard was when the cashier dropped the coins into their compartments.

These sounds might still be heard in some places with the scanning cash registers in the 21st century, but you have to keep your ears peeled for them because they aren't that common.

Answer: The sprockets in the machine

Each movie film had a series of holes on each side. When the film was fed into the projector, it grabbed these holes in sprockets that then pulled the film through the machine. The sprockets were quite loud as they "ticked" along. Nowadays, viewers don't have to worry about the noise from the sprockets drowning out the movie because movies are streamed directly to viewing devices.