Famous Inventors Quiz
Telephones, penicillin, the iPhone. Can you match 15 world-changing inventions to their makers?
Who is credited with inventing the telephone in 1876?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Alexander Graham Bell
Bell was granted U.S. patent 174,465 on March 7, 1876, and days later made the first call: 'Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.'
Rival Elisha Gray filed paperwork for a similar device at the patent office the very same day, sparking decades of dispute over who was first.
What did Johannes Gutenberg invent around 1440?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The movable-type printing press
Gutenberg combined movable metal type, oil-based ink and a screw press in Mainz, and printed his famous 42-line Bible around 1455.
Movable type had been used in China and Korea centuries earlier, but Gutenberg's system made mass printing practical in Europe.
Nikola Tesla is best known for his contributions to which system of electrical power?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Alternating current (AC)
Tesla's AC induction motor and polyphase system, licensed by Westinghouse, won the 'War of the Currents' against the rival direct current approach.
The tesla, the SI unit of magnetic flux density, was named in his honor in 1960.
Who invented the first practical incandescent light bulb?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Thomas Edison
Edison's Menlo Park team produced a carbon filament bulb in 1879 that burned for over 13 hours, and he paired it with a complete electricity supply system.
Britain's Joseph Swan demonstrated a similar bulb at about the same time, and the two rivals eventually merged their businesses as Ediswan.
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. In which field was her first Nobel?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Physics
Curie shared the 1903 Physics prize with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity, then won Chemistry outright in 1911.
Her laboratory notebooks are still radioactive and are stored in lead-lined boxes at the French national library.
Who is known as the "Father of the Computer" for designing the Analytical Engine?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Charles Babbage
Babbage designed the Analytical Engine in the 1830s with a mill, a store and punched-card input, essentially the architecture of a modern computer.
Ada Lovelace wrote an algorithm for the Engine in 1843, often described as the first computer program.
What did Alexander Fleming accidentally discover in 1928?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Penicillin
Fleming returned from holiday to find a Penicillium mold had killed the bacteria on a petri dish left out in his lab at St Mary's Hospital in London.
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain turned the mold into a usable drug a decade later and shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Fleming.
The Wright Brothers made their famous first powered flight in which year?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1903
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville flew the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds; the day's best flight covered 852 feet.
A piece of fabric from the 1903 Flyer went to the Moon with Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11.
Who patented the separate condenser in 1769, an improvement that made Thomas Newcomen's steam engine far more efficient?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
James Watt
James Watt's separate condenser cut the engine's fuel use by about three quarters, and his partnership with Matthew Boulton powered the Industrial Revolution.
The watt, the unit of power, is named after him, and he also coined the term 'horsepower' to sell his engines.
Who invented dynamite and later established the Nobel Prizes?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Alfred Nobel
Nobel patented dynamite in 1867 by stabilizing nitroglycerin with an absorbent earth, and his will funded the prizes first awarded in 1901.
A premature French obituary calling him 'the merchant of death' is said to have prompted him to rethink his legacy.
Hedy Lamarr, the Hollywood actress, co-invented an early form of which technology?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth)
Lamarr and composer George Antheil patented a frequency-hopping system in 1942 to stop the radio guidance of torpedoes from being jammed.
The Navy shelved the idea and Lamarr never earned anything from it; she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
Who is credited with inventing the first practical photographic process (the daguerreotype)?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Louis Daguerre
Daguerre announced the daguerreotype in 1839, building on the work of his late partner Nicephore Niepce, who had made the first surviving photograph in 1826.
The French government bought the process and declared it a gift 'free to the world', except in Britain, where Daguerre had taken out a patent.
What revolutionary device did Steve Jobs unveil at Macworld in January 2007?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The iPhone
Jobs introduced the iPhone on January 9, 2007, as 'an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator' in one device, and it went on sale that June.
The first iPhone had no App Store; that arrived in 2008 with about 500 apps.
Which inventor was granted 1,093 U.S. patents, including ones for the phonograph and the kinetoscope?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Thomas Edison
Edison's 1,093 patents cover the phonograph, the kinetoscope and improvements to the telegraph and the light bulb, a total unmatched until the 21st century.
Japanese engineer Shunpei Yamazaki and American physicist Lowell Wood have both since passed Edison's U.S. patent count.
Which inventor created the first successful vaccine, targeting smallpox in 1796?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Edward Jenner
Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with cowpox in 1796 and showed it protected him against smallpox; 'vaccine' comes from vacca, Latin for cow.
Smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980, the first human disease deliberately wiped out.
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All Technology quizzes →About the Famous Inventors Quiz
Gutenberg's press put books in ordinary hands. Bell's first phone call summoned his assistant from the next room. A Hollywood star named Hedy Lamarr patented the idea behind Wi-Fi in 1942 and never earned a cent from it. Famous inventors are rarely lone geniuses in a garret, but their patents, prototypes and stubbornness shaped almost everything you touched today.
These 15 questions run from the 1440s to 2007 and cover printing, electricity, medicine, flight, photography and computing. Some answers are the household names you expect; others reward knowing who really did the work, and which record has since been broken. It suits students, engineers, history buffs and anyone who has ever wondered who to thank for the light bulb, the vaccine or the phone in their pocket.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
Which inventors feature in the Famous Inventors Quiz?
Bell, Gutenberg, Tesla, Edison, Marie Curie, Babbage, Fleming, the Wright brothers, James Watt, Alfred Nobel, Hedy Lamarr, Daguerre, Steve Jobs and Edward Jenner all appear across the 15 questions.
Who holds the most U.S. patents?
Not Edison any more. His 1,093 U.S. patents were a record for decades, but Japanese engineer Shunpei Yamazaki and American physicist Lowell Wood have both since passed him.
How hard is the quiz?
Medium. Most questions cover well-known inventors, but a few ask about the specific breakthrough or date rather than just the name, which trips up casual players.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Who is credited with inventing the telephone in 1876?
Alexander Graham Bell Bell was granted U.S. patent 174,465 on March 7, 1876, and days later made the first call: 'Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.' Rival Elisha Gray filed paperwork for a similar device at the patent office the very same day, sparking decades of dispute over who was first. - What did Johannes Gutenberg invent around 1440?
The movable-type printing press Gutenberg combined movable metal type, oil-based ink and a screw press in Mainz, and printed his famous 42-line Bible around 1455. Movable type had been used in China and Korea centuries earlier, but Gutenberg's system made mass printing practical in Europe. - Nikola Tesla is best known for his contributions to which system of electrical power?
Alternating current (AC) Tesla's AC induction motor and polyphase system, licensed by Westinghouse, won the 'War of the Currents' against the rival direct current approach. The tesla, the SI unit of magnetic flux density, was named in his honor in 1960. - Who invented the first practical incandescent light bulb?
Thomas Edison Edison's Menlo Park team produced a carbon filament bulb in 1879 that burned for over 13 hours, and he paired it with a complete electricity supply system. Britain's Joseph Swan demonstrated a similar bulb at about the same time, and the two rivals eventually merged their businesses as Ediswan. - Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. In which field was her first Nobel?
Physics Curie shared the 1903 Physics prize with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity, then won Chemistry outright in 1911. Her laboratory notebooks are still radioactive and are stored in lead-lined boxes at the French national library. - Who is known as the "Father of the Computer" for designing the Analytical Engine?
Charles Babbage Babbage designed the Analytical Engine in the 1830s with a mill, a store and punched-card input, essentially the architecture of a modern computer. Ada Lovelace wrote an algorithm for the Engine in 1843, often described as the first computer program. - What did Alexander Fleming accidentally discover in 1928?
Penicillin Fleming returned from holiday to find a Penicillium mold had killed the bacteria on a petri dish left out in his lab at St Mary's Hospital in London. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain turned the mold into a usable drug a decade later and shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Fleming. - The Wright Brothers made their famous first powered flight in which year?
1903 On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville flew the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds; the day's best flight covered 852 feet. A piece of fabric from the 1903 Flyer went to the Moon with Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. - Who patented the separate condenser in 1769, an improvement that made Thomas Newcomen's steam engine far more efficient?
James Watt James Watt's separate condenser cut the engine's fuel use by about three quarters, and his partnership with Matthew Boulton powered the Industrial Revolution. The watt, the unit of power, is named after him, and he also coined the term 'horsepower' to sell his engines. - Who invented dynamite and later established the Nobel Prizes?
Alfred Nobel Nobel patented dynamite in 1867 by stabilizing nitroglycerin with an absorbent earth, and his will funded the prizes first awarded in 1901. A premature French obituary calling him 'the merchant of death' is said to have prompted him to rethink his legacy. - Hedy Lamarr, the Hollywood actress, co-invented an early form of which technology?
Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) Lamarr and composer George Antheil patented a frequency-hopping system in 1942 to stop the radio guidance of torpedoes from being jammed. The Navy shelved the idea and Lamarr never earned anything from it; she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. - Who is credited with inventing the first practical photographic process (the daguerreotype)?
Louis Daguerre Daguerre announced the daguerreotype in 1839, building on the work of his late partner Nicephore Niepce, who had made the first surviving photograph in 1826. The French government bought the process and declared it a gift 'free to the world', except in Britain, where Daguerre had taken out a patent. - What revolutionary device did Steve Jobs unveil at Macworld in January 2007?
The iPhone Jobs introduced the iPhone on January 9, 2007, as 'an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator' in one device, and it went on sale that June. The first iPhone had no App Store; that arrived in 2008 with about 500 apps. - Which inventor was granted 1,093 U.S. patents, including ones for the phonograph and the kinetoscope?
Thomas Edison Edison's 1,093 patents cover the phonograph, the kinetoscope and improvements to the telegraph and the light bulb, a total unmatched until the 21st century. Japanese engineer Shunpei Yamazaki and American physicist Lowell Wood have both since passed Edison's U.S. patent count. - Which inventor created the first successful vaccine, targeting smallpox in 1796?
Edward Jenner Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with cowpox in 1796 and showed it protected him against smallpox; 'vaccine' comes from vacca, Latin for cow. Smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980, the first human disease deliberately wiped out.
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