InterviewSolution
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InterviewSolution
This section includes InterviewSolutions, each offering curated multiple-choice questions to sharpen your General Knowledge knowledge and support exam preparation. Choose a topic below to get started.
| 1. |
Who invented the BALLPOINT PEN? |
| Answer» The Hungarian brothers, Laszlo and George Biro, made the first ball point pen in 1894. It followed the first workable fountain pen which was invented by L.E. Waterman in 1884. | |
| 2. |
What J. B. Dunlop invented? |
| Answer» John Boyd Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon, invented the pneumatic tyre in 1887. | |
| 3. |
When was barb wire patented? |
| Answer» 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". | |
| 4. |
When was Monopoly created? |
| Answer» After the Stock Market crash, a buying and selling game created by Charles Darrow came to be. The first games were hand drawn on linoleum with streets from Atlantic City, N.J. as the property. He took the game to the Parker Brothers company, and Monopply was brought out for Christmas 1934. Everyone wanted to buy the games after Christmas, and Monopoly became a big success. | |
| 5. |
The Manhattan Project was started by President Roosevelt in 1942 to ensure that the U.S. beat the Germans in developing a nuclear bomb. Whom did Roosevelt appoint as scientific head the Manhattan Project? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 6. |
When was the first lawn mower invented? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 7. |
In which decade were the first successful diode and triode vacuum tubes invented? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 8. |
Who is the English physicist responsible for the 'Big Bang Theory'? |
| Answer» George Gamow. Gamow, who died in 1968, was a physicist, who published "Thirty Years that Shook Physics". | |
| 9. |
What 'game' was first produced by the Southern Novelty Company in Baltimore, Maryland in 1892? |
| Answer» The board was invented by Isaac and William Fuld. The word 'Ouija' comes from the French and German words for 'yes', 'oui' and 'ja'. | |
| 10. |
When were bar code scanners invented? |
| Answer» The scanner reads the bar code label on something at a supermarket, and translates it into a number which the computer reads. | |
| 11. |
When was the game Frisbee invented? |
| Answer» The first Frisbees were pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company in Connecticut. In the 1950s, the pie tins were changed to plastic plates. The name then became the Flying Saucer, but later changed to Frisbee. | |
| 12. |
Who had an explosive idea and first patented DYNAMITE? |
| Answer» Alfred Noble patented dynamite in 1876. Nobel left $9 million in his will to be used as awards for people whose work benefit humanity - The Nobel Peace Prize etc. | |
| 13. |
Who invented the Spinning Jenny? |
| Answer» Awarded a Patent in 1770. It used 8 bobbins at once. | |
| 14. |
Which insurance salesman invented the fountain pen in 1884? |
| Answer» Lewis Edson Waterman patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884. | |
| 15. |
When was the first elevator built? |
| Answer» The first elevator was built in the palace of King Louis XV. It only traveled up one floor, and was hand powered by men inside the chimney. | |
| 16. |
What charge card, developed in 1950, was the first to be accepted nationally in the US? |
| Answer» The card was invented by Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider. | |
| 17. |
What George Westinghouse invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1868. | |
| 18. |
Who is the only U.S. President to invent and patent something? |
| Answer» In 1849 Honest Abe invented a method to aid ships that got stuck on sandbars. He called it A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals. It was never used. | |
| 19. |
What Enrico Fermi invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1942. | |
| 20. |
What invention is credited to the Russian born American inventor Vladimir Kosma Zworykin? |
| Answer» Zworykin invented both the tube (iconoscope) for transmission and the receiver (kinescope) in 1923 and 1924, respectively. | |
| 21. |
Benjamin Franklin was a prolific inventor. He invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, studied electricity, discovered the Gulf Stream, started the first library, and on and on. Among his many other inventions, what musical instrument did he invent? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 22. |
What Thomas Davenport invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1834. | |
| 23. |
What Elisha Otis invented? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 24. |
Where was the yo-yo invented? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 25. |
Who is often called the 'first African-American' inventor? |
| Answer» Banneker was a member of the planning committee that designed Washington, DC along with Pierre L'Enfant. When L'Enfant was fired Banneker recreated the plans from memory. | |
| 26. |
What inspired reflecting road lights to be invented? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 27. |
For what does the world owe Almon Strowger a debt of gratitude? |
| Answer» He was an undertaker, and legend has it, he developed the automatic switch in 1889, to stop competitors from getting his work! | |
| 28. |
When were blue jeans invented? |
| Answer» The first blue jeans were invented by tailor Levi Strauss, who invented tougher working pants for the miners of the California Gold Rush. | |
| 29. |
What device for new parents did Ann Moore invent in 1969? |
| Answer» Ann got the idea for the Snugli infant carrier from the traditional African baby carriers she observed while a volunteer for the Peace Corps in Africa. | |
| 30. |
In which decade was the transistor invented? |
| Answer» On December 23, 1947, William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen, of Bell Labs, announced their discovery of the point-contact germanium transistor to management. | |
| 31. |
What Igor Sikorsky invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1939. | |
| 32. |
What Henry Bessemer invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1856. | |
| 33. |
What invention was first installed at a Hartford, Connecticut bank in 1889? |
| Answer» William Gray, inventor of the pay telephone, also invented the inflatable chest protector worn by baseball umpires and catchers. | |
| 34. |
Ralph Samuelson was only 18 when he invented this sporting item in 1922. What was that? |
| Answer» The new item was first used on Lake Pepin in Minnesota. | |
| 35. |
What Karl Benz invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1885. | |
| 36. |
This English inventor is known as the 'Father of Computing.' |
| Answer» Mauchly and Eckert invented the ENIAC computer. Farnsworth was a pioneer of early television. | |
| 37. |
What piece of clothing was invented by French fashion designer Louis Reard in 1946? |
| Answer» The bikini, a two-piece swimsuit named for the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, made its debut on July 5, 1946. | |
| 38. |
Who was the first American female to patent her invention, a method of weaving straw with silk? |
| Answer» 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. | |
| 39. |
Who invented the first controllable flying AEROPLANE (AIRPLANE)? |
| Answer» Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first successful controlled powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in December 1903. The twelve second flight covered a distance of 120 feet and an altitude of just ten feet. | |
| 40. |
What groovy item was invented by Englishman Edward Craven Walker in 1963? |
| Answer» Groovy, baby! Lava lamps, which were a fixture in every hip pad in the 1960s and 70s, featured a mixture of water and colored oil that created swirl patterns when heated by a light bulb. | |
| 41. |
What African-American inventor received 5 patents in the field of shoemaking? |
| Answer» Matzeliger never benefited financially from his inventions. He died in 1889 at the age of 37 from tuberculosis. | |
| 42. |
What now-ubiquitous device was invented by Zenith engineer Eugene Polley in 1955? |
| Answer» The first wireless remote control for television was called Flashmatic. (Remember when you had to get up to change the channel?) | |
| 43. |
What Benjamin Franklin invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1760. A list of Benjamin Franklin's inventions reveals a man of many talents and interests. It was the scientist in Ben that brought out the inventor. His natural curiosity about things and the way they work made him try to find ways to make them work better. Ben had poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got tired of constantly taking them off and putting them back on, so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Today, we call them bifocals. | |
| 44. |
This part-time race car driver invented the bucket seat in 1969. Who was he?? |
| Answer» McQueen died in 1980 from a rare form of lung cancer. | |
| 45. |
What plaything was invented by Joe McVicker in 1956? |
| Answer» The stuff was originally intended to be wallpaper cleaner! (I used to eat this as a child) | |
| 46. |
What Elmer A. Sperry invented? |
| Answer» Invented in 1911. | |
| 47. |
For over 500 years, paper was only available and sold as single sheets. In 1902, an inventive Australian used half size sheets of paper, a bit of glue and cardboard to create the what? |
| Answer» Birchall's of Launceston in Tasmania started selling the world’s first notepads, calling them 'Silvercity Writing Tablets' after J A Birchall thought it would be a good idea to back sheets of paper with cardboard and glue them together at the top. His British paper suppliers weren’t so keen, but, they were persuaded by Birchall that it was a good idea! | |
| 48. |
Who developed the idea of Crop Rotation? |
| Answer» Viscount Charles 'Turnip' Townsend developed this revolutionary concept. | |
| 49. |
CORN FLAKES - Who made them first? |
| Answer» Will Keith Kellogg discovered the corn flake, by mistake, in 1906. They were the result of an experiment which went wrong. | |
| 50. |
What did cardiologist Dr. Paul Zoll invent in Massachusetts in 1952? |
| Answer» The pacemaker is an electrical device that regulates the heartbeat. | |