Q 01/05

Which greeting did Bell favour for answering the telephone, before Edison's 'hello' won out?

A) Good day

B) Ahoy

C) Greetings

D) Howdy

Answer · why

B) Ahoy

Ahoy: Edison backed 'hello' instead because, he wrote, it could be heard 10 to 20 feet away.

Q 02/05

After a newborn son died in 1881, Bell designed a forerunner of which medical device?

A) The incubator

B) The pacemaker

C) The iron lung

D) The defibrillator

Answer · why

C) The iron lung

The iron lung: his 'vacuum jacket' was an artificial respirator, built after the baby's lungs had failed.

Q 03/05

What were the first intelligible words transmitted by Bell's telephone?

A) "Hello, can you hear me?"

B) "What hath God wrought"

C) "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you"

D) "Watson, the telephone works at last"

Answer · why

C) "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you"

"Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you": so Bell's notebook has it, but Watson left 'to see' out of his notes, and it is often quoted that way.

Q 04/05

In which city was Bell born on March 3, 1847?

A) London

B) Edinburgh

C) Dublin

D) Glasgow

Answer · why

B) Edinburgh

Edinburgh: yet as a schoolboy there, the future inventor was by his own admission a poor student, prone to daydreaming.

Q 05/05

Why did Bell's father let him take the middle name 'Graham'?

A) He begged to have one like his brothers

B) His schoolmaster insisted on it

C) To honour a Scottish poet

D) It was a family surname

Answer · why

A) He begged to have one like his brothers

He begged to have one like his brothers: he chose 'Graham' because he admired Alexander Graham, a former pupil of his father's.