Q 01/05

How many US patents did Thomas Edison register?

A) 137

B) 412

C) 1,093

D) 3,265

Answer · why

C) 1,093

1,093. That is a patent every ten to twelve days of his adult life; he had once vowed to turn out "a minor invention every ten days and a big thing ev...

Q 02/05

In which Ohio town was Edison born in 1847?

A) Toledo

B) Dayton

C) Canton

D) Milan

Answer · why

D) Milan

Milan. His father had fled there from Canada after joining a failed rebellion, and moved the family on to Port Huron, Michigan, when Edison was seven.

Q 03/05

Edison was nicknamed "The Wizard of" which New Jersey village, home to his laboratory?

A) Menlo Park

B) Newark

C) Schenectady

D) Hoboken

Answer · why

A) Menlo Park

Menlo Park. He bought land there after a Newark landlord sued him, and his father oversaw the building of what became known as his "invention factory"...

Q 04/05

Which invention first brought Edison wide public notice in 1877?

A) The kinetoscope

B) The light bulb

C) The stock ticker

D) The phonograph

Answer · why

D) The phonograph

The phonograph. He was only trying to record telephone messages so that they could be written down, then realised his machine could capture sound itse...

Q 05/05

Historian Paul Israel blames Edison's deafness on ear infections plus which childhood illness?

A) Scarlet fever

B) Diphtheria

C) Rheumatic fever

D) Whooping cough

Answer · why

A) Scarlet fever

Scarlet fever. Edison told a taller tale, that he had once been hauled up by his ears, and came to call his deafness a help to concentration.