Q 01/05

Which unit of power did James Watt popularise in the 1780s to show buyers what his steam engines could do?

A) Horsepower

B) Candlepower

C) Poundal

D) Calorie

Answer · why

A) Horsepower

Horsepower let a buyer compare an engine with the animals it would replace. Watt measured a brewery horse at work and fixed one unit at 33,000 foot-po...

Q 02/05

Which streamlined British locomotive set the world speed record for steam traction, 126 mph, on a July day in 1938?

A) Coronation

B) City of Truro

C) Mallard

D) Royal Scot

Answer · why

C) Mallard

Mallard got its name because its designer, Nigel Gresley, bred wild birds. The record run was officially a brake test, and no steam locomotive has gon...

Q 03/05

Which locomotive won the Rainhill Trials of 1829 to work the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway?

A) Novelty

B) Rocket

C) Sans Pareil

D) Perseverance

Answer · why

B) Rocket

Rocket was the only entrant to complete the trials. On the railway's opening day a year later it struck and killed William Huskisson, the Member of Pa...

Q 04/05

Which American engineer ran the first commercially successful steamboat up the Hudson River to Albany in 1807?

A) John Fitch

B) Eli Whitney

C) Cornelius Vanderbilt

D) Robert Fulton

Answer · why

D) Robert Fulton

Robert Fulton had already built a working submarine, Nautilus, for Napoleon's France. His steamboat covered the 150 nautical miles to Albany in 32 hou...

Q 05/05

Which household object stars in the probably mythical story of how young James Watt discovered the power of steam?

A) A copper wash tub

B) A boiling kettle

C) A hot bread oven

D) A cast-iron stove

Answer · why

B) A boiling kettle

A boiling kettle lifting its own lid is the legend, and it holds a grain of truth: Watt's diaries show he used a kettle as a small boiler in his steam...