It Started Where? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Geelong, Australia

Australian inventor James Harrison used a mechanical compressor to condense gas (originally, ether) into a liquid. The cold liquid ran through pipes, producing ice, and returned to gas in the process. Transportation was a problem, though - he opened a second plant in Sydney in 1860.

Answer: La Porte, Indiana

By the late 1870s, commercial exchanges brought together multiple lines, but the connections were made manually by operators. The small town of La Porte, Indiana inaugurated the first automatic telephone exchange in 1892. The dialing device was invented by Almon Strowger, a former undertaker. Legend has it that Strowger's funeral business was hurt by a competitor, whose wife was the local telephone operator - she intercepted calls to Strowger's funeral home and sent them to her husband's telephone line.

Answer: A printing plant in Brooklyn

Willis Carrier developed the first practical mechanical air cooling system for a lithography company that needed cooler temperatures and lower humidity. Lesser-known rival Stuart Cramer coined the term "air conditioning" in 1906, for his system of adding moisture to cooled air in textile plants - where the production process benefited from higher humidity.

Answer: Copenhagen, Denmark

The first workable typewriter was invented by Rasmus Malling-Hansen, a Danish Pastor and Principal of the Royal Institute for Deaf-Mutes. He saw it as an aid to communication. The hemispherical keyboard was ergonomically effective. He located the most often-used keys under the index and middle fingers.

The familiar QWERTY arrangement was an American idea, designed to prevent keys from jamming - a problem the Writing Ball didn't have.

Answer: Budapest, Hungary

If the date were 1943, it would have been Argentina.

Budapest native László József Bíró was a publisher. He noticed that newspaper print dried quickly without smudging. What if a pen could do the same? With his brother György, a chemist, he developed the ballpoint pen. The family later fled genocide in Europe to settle in Argentina, where the common term for a ballpoint pen to this day is "birome." Argentines celebrate László Bíró's birthday (September 29th) as Inventor's Day.

Answer: Salt Lake City, Utah

In 1868, a gaslight traffic signal was placed outside the Parliament buildings in London. It exploded less than a month later. The signal, not Parliament.

Officer Wire's electric traffic light resembled a yellow birdhouse. Ironically, it was later removed and sold to an aviary for that very purpose. In 1958, the still-extant gadget was bought for display in Syracuse, New York. The inventor's sister tried to buy it back in 1964, but was told it had been disposed of days before her request.

Answer: Dorchester, Massachusetts

Beginning in the mid-19th century, the Sturtevant company developed and marketed a range of advanced machinery, though mostly for excavation and materials processing. The "Sturtevant Automatic Automobile" featured a custom-designed engine (4 or 6 cylinders), vacuum brakes and advanced lubrication to complement its automatic transmission.

Answer: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

The Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania introduced electric wristwatches in 1957. Elvis Presley's "Ventura" model was a curved triangle, with the "top" point at 1:00 - stylish in a 1950s sort of way. The Hamilton manufacturing plant closed in 1980. It's now a mixed-use residential and office complex listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Answer: Belfast, Northern Ireland

John Boyd Dunlop devised the first practical pneumatic tyre (tire), though his patent was later declared invalid. A veterinarian by profession, Dunlop claimed he devised the concept because his son had headaches from bumping along on metal wheels. Pneumatic tires were given a boost by the discovery of vulcanization by American Charles Goodyear and his associates.

The name Dunlop lives on as a tire brand - though today Dunlop is a subsidiary of Goodyear in most of the world.

Answer: Wuppertal (Barmen), Germany

Salicylate is found in willow and other plants. It had been used for thousands of years as a pain reliever, but caused unpleasant side effects. Chemists at Bayer AG, a German dye and pharmaceutical company, found that acetylsalicylic acid had the same benefits and fewer drawbacks. Bayer trademarked the name Aspirin, but lost exclusive rights when the term became generic (and Bayer's assets in the United States were seized during World War One).