Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The prolific American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in a small Ohio town. After which Italian city was his town of birth called?
2. True or false: As a youth, Thomas had only a few short months of formal schooling and was considered by his parents and teachers to have a severe learning disability.
3. At the age of seven, Thomas and his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. He set up his first laboratory in the basement of his family's house at 10 years of age. At 12 years old, he found his first job working in a position attached to which field?
4. Most of his life, Thomas suffered from a certain handicap. From which of the following difficulties did he suffer?
5. From 1862 to 1868 Edison worked in the telegraphy industry, where he learned much about mechanical devices. During this time, he also came into contact with a number of important individuals, including the current king of inventors, Alexander Graham Bell himself! Inspired by the atmosphere of innovation he found during these years, and especially in Boston, where he lived during the latter part of this period, he came up with his first invention. What was this first invention, developed in 1868, for which he received his first patent?
6. Thomas' first financial success came a year later. Traveling from Boston to New York, he found himself in dire financial straits. Hoping to strike it rich in the Big Apple, he found odd jobs here and there. It was in Gotham that serendipity first smiled at Edison, when he created which device, his first major moneymaker?
7. Edison's first marriage began in 1871, when he decided to hitch up with a laboratory assistant nine years his younger. Who was this lovely girl with whom Thomas became betrothed?
8. Thomas and his wife soon had three children. What were the fitting nicknames of the first two children, a daughter and a son?
9. In 1876, Thomas, with the support of several financiers, including J. P. Morgan, set up a laboratory for inventing purposes in which small New Jersey town?
10. The following year, 1877, Edison patented his personal favorite invention. What was this remarkable device?
11. Let's jump to 1879 now, and another important Edison invention, the incandescent light bulb. Is it true or false that Edison's light bulb was the very first to be patented?
12. The first commercial power system was developed by Thomas Edison in 1882, when he began lighting homes in which of these cities?
13. 1882 was also the year of Edison's only significant scientific discovery. This discovery, that an electric current could be induced to flow between two unconnected wires in a vacuum, is called the Edison _______? (Fill in the blank)
14. Thomas Edison was involved in the creation of a number of major U.S. companies in various industries. The greatest example of his corporate initiative was the development of the Edison Electric Company in 1889, which eventually merged with another Company and became which major corporate juggernaut of the 20th century?
15. In the 1890s, after his invention of the motion picture camera and the projector, Edison became involved in movie making. He opened his Black Maria Motion Picture Company in 1893 and set out to make films. What was the name of the 10 minute film released by his company in 1903 that took the film world by storm?
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