Inventions — Part 1 MCQs with Explanations

The ballpoint pen was invented by the Biro Brothers. The invention is credited to László Bíró , a Hungarian journalist, and his brother György Bíró , who was a chemist. László Bíró observed that newspaper ink dried quickly and did not smudge, so he wanted to use similar ink in pens. With the help of his brother, he developed a pen that used thick ink and a small rotating ball at the tip, which allowed smooth writing. They patented the ballpoint pen in 1938 , and their design became the basis for modern ballpoint pens used worldwide. Waterman Brothers were associated with fountain pens, Bicc (BIC) later popularized ballpoint pens through mass production, and Write Brothers have no connection with pen inventions.

On September 12, 1958, Jack Kilby demonstrated the first working IC while working for Texas Instruments, although the U.S. patent office awarded the first patent for an integrated circuit to Robert Noyce of Fairchild.

Scotsman John Dunlop developed the first practical pneumatic tire in 1888.

Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

Joseph F. Glidden was born in New York on Jan. 18, 1812. He invented barbed wire in 1873 and was granted the patent on Nov. 24, 1874. After a three year battle over the patent, which he eventually won, Gidden became known as the "Father of Barbed Wire".

The Richter scale was developed in 1935 by American seismologist Charles Richter (1891-1989) as a way of quantifying the magnitude, or strength, of earthquakes.

James Watt invented rotary steam engine.

The village of Branston is in Staffordshire, just south of Burton-on-Trent.

Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are recognized as the co-inventors of the jet engine. Each was working separately and knew nothing of the others work. Although Whittle started first, von Ohain was first to design and develop a turbojet engine to power an aircraft. Of the many honors received by both, the most significant honor was probably "The Charles Draper Prize" in 1992 which was given to both Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle for their efforts and contributions to aviation and mankind. "The Charles Draper Prize" is recognized as the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in technology.

Many people who tried to test the first parachutes died by jumping from high places. One attempt was a parachute hat, but the inventor broke his neck while testing it. The first successful parachute was tested from a hot air balloon in 1797, in France, by Jacques Garnerin.

Roger Bacon invented gunpowder.

No one knows for sure when the first chocolate bar appeared or even who made it, but an important event occurred in 1828. The Van Houten press was invented, which extracted cocoa butter from the bean - the same press that brought the Cadbury Brothers success with Cocoa Essence.

The first wireless remote control for television was called Flashmatic.

Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal spectacles in 1760.

McQueen invented the bucket seat in 1969.

Play-Doh was invented by Joe McVicker in 1956.

Mary was not the first American woman inventor to be sure, there were many female inventors before her, but they never bothered to get a patent.

Gramophone was invented by Thomas Edison, Emile Berliner and Eldridge R. Johnson. Gramophone is also known as phonograph.

Waterbed was invented by California furniture designer Charles Prior Hall in 1968.

Leslie R. Groves, however, was the military head of the project and the overall supremo, while Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director. The world's first atomic bomb was exploded in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945.

The first lawn mowers were not engine powered. Invented in 1830 by Edwin Budding of England, the mowers were turning blades on wooden sticks used to cut grass. Engine powered mowers were not invented until 1919 by an American Army colonel, who used the motor from a washing machine.

In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invented the first practical electron tube called the 'Fleming Valve', which is a diode rectifier. In 1906, Lee de Forest invented the Audion later called the triode, which provided signal amplification.

George Gamow, who died in 1968, was a physicist, who published "Thirty Years that Shook Physics".

The board was invented by Isaac and William Fuld. The word 'Ouija' comes from the French and German words for 'yes', 'oui' and 'ja'.

Lewis Edson Waterman patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884.

The first elevator was built in the palace of King Louis XV in 1743. It only traveled up one floor, and was hand powered by men inside the chimney.

The card was invented by Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider.

Enrico Fermi ( 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1.

The Electric Drill was the invention of Arthur James Arnot. On 20 August 1889 he patented his design while working for the Union Electric Company in Melbourne. His original design was meant primarily for drilling rock to find coal.

The smallpox vaccine, introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796, was the first successful vaccine to be developed. He observed that milkmaids who previously had caught cowpox did not catch smallpox and showed that inoculated vaccinia protected against inoculated variola virus.

Vladimir Zworykin, in full Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, (born July 29 [July 17, Old Style], 1888, Murom, Russia—died July 29, 1982, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.), Russian-born American electronic engineer and inventor of the iconoscope and kinescope television systems.

Ben also holds a lot of firsts - first U.S. ambassador, first political cartoonist, first American philosopher, organized the first fire department, and on and on.

Thomas Davenport (9 July 1802 – 6 July 1851) was a Vermont blacksmith who constructed the first American DC electric motor in 1834.

In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrated a freight elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting cable should break. This increased public confidence in such devices. Otis established a company for manufacturing elevators and patented (1861) a steam elevator. Many people think that he invented the elevator, but the truth is, he invented the elevator brake. He also invented the railway safety brake.

The yo-yo was first used by hunters as weapons. They were wooden disks on strings. In the 1920s, a man from the U.S. named Donald Duncan made the yo-yo into a toy after he visited the Philippines.

He was an undertaker, and legend has it, he developed the automatic switch in 1889, to stop competitors from getting his work.

The system was completed and public use initiated on May 24, 1844, with transmission of the message, “What hath God wrought!” This inaugurated the telegraph era in the United States, which was to last more than 100 years. Key-type Morse telegraph transmitter from the 1840s. Morse telegraph register from the 1840s.

In 1933, Englishman Percy Shaw was driving home when he saw a cat's eyes reflecting. He had been headed straight towards a fence with the cat on it, but on the other side was a drop of hundreds of feet.

On May 20, 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world's most famous garments: blue jeans.

The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk, was invented in 1831 by British scientist Michael Faraday. Generators provide nearly all of the power for electric power grids.