Something New Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is an Oxford educated engineer who first proposed his idea for the World Wide Web in 1989 while he worked at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Among the many honours bestowed upon him, he was named "One of the 100 Great Minds of the Century" by 'Time' magazine in 1999 and subsequently knighted for his services to the global development of the internet by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

The world owes a great debt to Benjamin Franklin. He was a self-taught scientist, inventor, ambassador and stateman, and one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. He died in 1790 at the age of 84 having lived a life that most us could only dream about.

Answer: Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss was a German immigrant. He and his family arrived in New York in 1847. When he heard of the California Gold Rush, he travelled to San Francisco in 1853 to set up a branch of the family dry goods business. In 1873, he and his partner, Jacob Davis, created an innovation - riveted work pants - that revolutionized the clothing industry.

Answer: Arthur Wynne

Arthur Wynne came to New York from Liverpool, England. His first puzzle was called a "word-cross" which was in the shape of a diamond with no black spaces. It was published in the New York World newspaper on December 12, 1913. Little did he know how popular his idea would become.

The New York Times didn't publish their famous crosswords until 1942 despite the puzzle's earlier popularity.

Answer: Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver

Fry and Silver worked for 3M when they developed the Post-It Note. In 1968, Silver invented a glue that wouldn't stick as well as he would have liked. Four years later, Fry discovered that, when applied to his hymm book markers, the glue wouldn't damage the paper when the markers were removed. Voila! The perfect invention. Shareholders of the company continue to be happy about that serendipitous event.

Answer: Charles Darrow

Charles Darrow lost his job in sales after the stock market crash of 1929. He'd seen neighbours playing a crude, home-made version of a game which involved the buying and selling of properties. Darrow took the idea and developed it into his game of Monopoly. He became the first millionaire board game designer in history.

The game has it origins in 1903, when by Lizzy Magie invented "The landlord's Game". She patented it in 1904 and again in 1924 after she made further revisions. Charles Barrow took out patent in 1935 and called the game "Monopoly", when he sold his game to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers subsequently acquired Lizzy's 1924 patent, when they learnt that Barrow may not have been the inventor of the game they'd acquired.

Answer: Lewis Waterman

Waterman opened a factory in Montreal in 1899 but, sadly, died two years later so didn't live to see the huge success his invention brought. Vintage Waterman pens can sell for thousands of dollars.

Answer: George Washington Carver

Carver was born into slavery in Missouri prior to the abolition of slavery in 1864. Despite his many inventions, his greatest accomplishment was disavowing others of the widespread belief that the black race was intellectually inferior. I think he succeeded nicely.

Answer: Thomas Savery

James Watt is often credited with inventing the steam engine, however, the work he did 75 years after Savery's invention radically improved existing engine designs. My husband's family are proud descendants of Savery.

Answer: Frank Zamboni

During a hockey game, the surface is shaved away by the player's skates and becomes very patchy and difficult to skate on. After each period of play, the Zamboni removes the shavings and lays down a new surface by applying hot water to the cleaned ice. It was a fine, fine thing Frank Zamboni did for the game of hockey. He was inducted, posthumously, into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009.