Q 01/05

In the children's TV series Teletubbies, what is the name of the vacuum cleaner that keeps the house tidy?

A) Laa-Laa

B) Noo-Noo

C) Makka Pakka

D) Igglepiggle

Answer · why

B) Noo-Noo

Noo-Noo, a vacuum cleaner with a mind of his own, tidies the Teletubbies' home. When he misbehaves and sucks up their tubby toast, they shout 'Naughty...

Q 02/05

In which film comedy does the villains' ship turn into a giant maid and vacuum the air off a planet?

A) Galaxy Quest

B) Spaceballs

C) Mars Attacks!

D) Flash Gordon

Answer · why

B) Spaceballs

Spaceballs. In Mel Brooks's Star Wars send-up the villains' ship becomes 'Mega-Maid' and sucks up the planet Druidia's air, until the hero throws her ...

Q 03/05

What name did Ives McGaffey give the hand-cranked, fan-driven sweeping machine he patented in Chicago in 1869?

A) Tornado

B) Whirlwind

C) Little Giant

D) Thunderbolt

Answer · why

B) Whirlwind

Whirlwind was Ives McGaffey's name for it, though the patent calls it only a 'sweeping machine'. Most of his stock is said to have burned in the Great...

Q 04/05

Which British engineer built the horse-drawn 'Puffing Billy' suction cleaner in 1901?

A) Charles Parsons

B) Hubert Cecil Booth

C) Walter Griffiths

D) Frederick Lanchester

Answer · why

B) Hubert Cecil Booth

Hubert Cecil Booth's petrol-driven pump was too big to take indoors, so it stood in the street while long hoses went in through the windows. A visit b...

Q 05/05

The Puffing Billy's inventor designed which fairground attractions for London, Blackpool, Paris and Vienna?

A) Ferris wheels

B) Roller coasters

C) Carousels

D) Water chutes

Answer · why

A) Ferris wheels

Ferris wheels, including Vienna's famous Riesenrad, were his work as a young engineer in the 1890s. His noisy street-side vacuum cleaner later landed ...