Not What I Had in Mind Trivia Quiz

Answer: Microwave

Few homes are without the standard microwave as part of the kitchen decor. Percy Spencer, while conducting research with the Raytheon Company on vacuum tubes called magnetrons, observed that these tubes gave off significant heat. After a candy bar melted in his pocket he experimented with popcorn.

In 1947, the Raytheon Company built the first microwave oven, a 750-pound giant called the "Radarange." It cost over $5,000 and was both bulky and extraordinarily tall. However, in 1967 a smaller 100-volt countertop version was introduced at a cost of $495. Nowadays, stores carry microwave ovens under $50. So thank you Percy! Without you, Friday - "Movie and Popcorn night" in our house - would not be the same.

Answer: Penicillin

Alexander Fleming noted that mold had begun to grow upon some of the staphylococcus bacteria cultures he had left out exposed to the air in his messy laboratory. Bacteria dotted the dishes but none seemed to grow in areas around the mold. This mold was identified as Penicillium notatum and was causing bacteria membranes to rupture and undergo lysis, thus essentially killing the bacteria.

A number of years later, in 1940, scientists at the University of Oxford isolated penicillin and invented the world's first antibiotic. An interesting story is told that Fleming, years later, was given a tour of a pristine modern medical laboratory.

The lab was surgically clean and the host made a comment, "If you worked here, think of what you could have invented." Alexander Fleming's legendary reply was, "Not penicillin."

Answer: Play-Doh

Cleo McVicker's wallpaper cleaner proved to be incredibly moldable. Demand for wallpaper cleaner declined when people started to use alternative heating options for their homes. Joseph McVicker, playing with the product one day, realized that the cleaner could be used as modeling clay.

In 1955, the Kutol company removed the cleaning agent from the product and started testing it with local schools and daycares. It became an overnight sensation and in 1956, he and his Uncle Noah created the Rainbow Crafts Company and began providing Play-Doh to the world's children.

Answer: Post-It notes

The history of "Post-It notes" is a true "mistake becomes great" story. Spencer Silver kept a positive attitude despite failing to create a strong industrial-grade adhesive. His colleague, Arthur Fry, was a chorister with a church choir and began to grow frustrated at losing his page in the hymn book when traditional bookmarks would fall out. Four years later he recalled Spencer Silver's "failure" and used it to make page-marks.

The trial was a huge success and the weak glue allowed the markers to be lifted off a page without leaving any residue.

In 1980, 3M began to market this new innovative product which has now become a staple of office stationery cupboards around the world.

Answer: Dynamite

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21st 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a chemist, engineer, philanthropist, and inventor. During his career he held over 350 different patents among which was "dynamite." Working with explosives required the careful handling of the unstable nitroglycerine. In 1864, an accident in his Stockholm lab caused the death of his brother. A few years later, while transporting nitroglycerin, one of the cans broke open and started to leak. Amazingly, the liquid did not explode. The material used for packing the cans was a rock mixture called kieselguhr and was found to have a stabilizing effect on the explosive liquid. Nobel developed a formula that mixed kieselguhr with nitroglycerin in a way that did not hinder its explosive qualities. This 1867 patent revolutionized the construction of explosives and he called his new product, "dynamite."

When he passed away on December 10th 1896 he left behind a will bequeathing a large sum of money for the institution of a global prize recognizing significant human invention and achievement.

Answer: Implantable heart pacemaker

After realizing his error he went ahead and installed the transistor anyway. The result, when he switched it, on was a rhythmic pulsing sound that was much akin to a human heart-beat. This new invention, which he called a pacemaker, was ideal for sending pulsating signals to the cardiac muscle.

In 1960, after extensive testing with animals, he successfully implanted the first miniature pacemaker into a human.

Answer: Velcro

Most people think that the idea for "Velcro" sprung from the minds of NASA scientists on account of its usefulness in zero gravity. However, it was a walk through the mountains in 1941 that put George de Mestral on the track for inventing the unique velcro product.

His inspiration was in the tiny little hooks and loops seen under the microscope when viewing burrs from the Burdock plant. De Mestral patented velcro in 1955 and it has been adapted and developed into a wide array of different products, including those textile adhesives used on board the space shuttle and space station.

The word "velcro" is actually a combination of two french words -- velours meaning velvet and crochet meaning hook.

Answer: Matches

John Walker's initial training was in medicine. However, due to an aversion to blood he decided to change his focus to chemistry. After studying in York and Durham, he returned home in 1818 to begin a small drugstore. He had a special interest in developing ways to start fires. One day while preparing a mixture of sulphide of antimony, potash chlorate, and gum, he found a glob of the mixture had dried to the end of a wooden splint. Attempting to wipe the glob off the end by rubbing it along the stone hearth, he was amazed to see the splint burst into flame. Eureka, the first friction match was born.

Answer: Slinky

Richard T. James was working hard at his workbench when he happened to drop one of his tension springs on the floor. He noticed that the spring continued to move even after it had hit the floor. He then experimented on stairs and found the spring would travel down on its own volition. An idea for a toy was born.

It was his wife, Betty James, that coined the name "Slinky" and who would become the brains and marketing genius behind the company. Slinky made its debut at a demonstration held at Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia over the 1945 Christmas period.

It also was a hit at the 1946 American Toy Fair and has gone on to sell over 300 million pieces worldwide.

Answer: X-Ray machine

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born on March 27th 1845. In 1901, six years after his dramatic discovery of x-rays, he earned the first-ever Nobel Prize awarded in Physics. His accidental discovery occurred in 1895 while he was investigating passing electrical charges through various vacuum tubes.

He was using a Lenard tube and observed that an invisible cathode ray caused a fluorescent shimmering onto a piece of cardboard across the other side of the lab. A week or so later he made an official x-ray of his wife's hand and the rest is history.