Q 01/05

A bird-bone needle found in Denisova Cave, attributed to Denisovans, is estimated to be roughly how old?

A) 50,000 years

B) 15,000 years

C) 5,000 years

D) 150,000 years

Answer · why

A) 50,000 years

Early humans across Europe and Asia sewed fur and leather with needles of bone, antler and ivory, threading them with sinew.

Q 02/05

The Inuit traditionally made sewing thread from the sinew of which animal?

A) Seal

B) Caribou

C) Polar bear

D) Walrus

Answer · why

B) Caribou

Their needles were carved from bone; elsewhere early sewers used catgut and veins as thread.

Q 03/05

Which English inventor produced the first sewing machine design, in 1790?

A) Walter Hunt

B) Elias Howe

C) Thomas Saint

D) Isaac Singer

Answer · why

C) Thomas Saint

His design was for leather and canvas; a working replica built decades later needed modifications to sew at all.

Q 04/05

After Barthelemy Thimonnier patented his sewing machine in 1830, what reportedly happened to his factory?

A) It was bought out by Singer

B) It was seized by the French crown

C) It was flooded by the Rhone

D) It was burned down by fearful workers

Answer · why

D) It was burned down by fearful workers

Tailors saw the machine as a threat to their livelihoods; Thimonnier's machines were meant to make military uniforms.

Q 05/05

Who invented the first American lockstitch sewing machine, in 1832?

A) Walter Hunt

B) Elias Howe

C) Isaac Singer

D) Allen Wilson

Answer · why

A) Walter Hunt

He never patented it, reportedly worried it would put seamstresses out of work; he did patent the safety pin.