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Thomas Edison - Test
Contributed by: Newell
  • 1. What year was Thomas Edison born?
A) 1901
B) 1847
C) 1856
D) 1879
  • 2. In which city was Thomas Edison born?
A) Atlanta, Georgia
B) Boston, Massachusetts
C) New York City, New York
D) Milan, Ohio
  • 3. Which invention is Thomas Edison most famous for?
A) Light bulb
B) Airplane
C) Telephone
D) Microwave oven
  • 4. Which famous inventor was a rival of Thomas Edison?
A) Henry Ford
B) Alexander Graham Bell
C) The Wright Brothers
D) Nikola Tesla
  • 5. What was the first public demonstration of Thomas Edison's light bulb?
A) August 8, 1854
B) December 31, 1879
C) January 1, 1900
D) November 11, 1922
  • 6. Which company did Thomas Edison found in 1892?
A) Tesla Motors
B) Ford Motor Company
C) IBM
D) General Electric
  • 7. What was Thomas Edison's favorite color?
A) Green
B) Yellow
C) Blue
D) Red
  • 8. What was the nickname given to Thomas Edison by the press?
A) The Electric Genius
B) The Wizard of Menlo Park
C) The Master Inventor
D) The Light Bulb King
  • 9. Which famous President did Thomas Edison meet multiple times?
A) Franklin D. Roosevelt
B) Grover Cleveland
C) Abraham Lincoln
D) George Washington
  • 10. What was the name of Thomas Edison's second wife?
A) Emily Wilson
B) Mina Miller
C) Mary Johnson
D) Sarah Adams
  • 11. How many children did Thomas Edison have?
A) 6
B) 4
C) 8
D) 2
  • 12. What was the name of the newspaper founded by Edison?
A) Port Huron News
B) Edison Daily
C) Grand Trunk Herald
D) Menlo Park Gazette
  • 13. At what age did Edison save a child from a runaway train?
A) 15
B) 13
C) 12
D) 18
  • 14. Where did Edison work as a night telegrapher?
A) Stratford Junction, Ontario
B) Menlo Park, New Jersey
C) Milan, Ohio
D) Port Huron, Michigan
  • 15. What did Edison sell to turn a profit at age 13?
A) Electrical equipment
B) Newspapers, candy, and vegetables
C) Patents
D) Phonographs
  • 16. Who taught Edison reading, writing, and arithmetic?
A) His mother
B) A school teacher
C) His father
D) A mentor
  • 17. What was the original coverage focus of the Grand Trunk Herald?
A) Local news
B) National news
C) Financial news
D) International news
  • 18. How many issues did the Grand Trunk Herald run?
A) Five hundred
B) Twenty-four
C) One hundred
D) Fifty
  • 19. How many people subscribed to the Grand Trunk Herald?
A) One thousand
B) Twenty-four
C) One hundred
D) Five hundred
  • 20. What did Edison use his fortune for?
A) Investing in stocks
B) Traveling the world
C) Retiring early
D) Furthering his passion for invention
  • 21. How many US patents did Edison hold?
A) 1,500
B) 2,000
C) 1,093
D) 500
  • 22. Who was Edison's great-grandfather?
A) Samuel Edison Sr.
B) Thomas Edison Jr.
C) John Edeson
D) Samuel Ogden Edison Jr.
  • 23. Where did Edison's great-grandfather flee to in 1784?
A) New Jersey
B) Ohio
C) Nova Scotia
D) Michigan
  • 24. What military unit did Edison's grandfather serve with?
A) 1st Middlesex Militia
B) Grand Trunk Railway
C) Canadian Army
D) Ohio Militia
  • 25. What inspired Edison's thinking throughout his life?
A) Works by Benjamin Franklin
B) Works by Thomas Paine
C) Works by Nikola Tesla
D) Works by Alexander Graham Bell
  • 26. What did Edison do after resigning as a night telegrapher?
A) Conducted chemical experiments
B) Worked as a news butcher
C) Started a business in Vienna
D) Became a school teacher
  • 27. Which company employed Thomas Edison when he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire?
A) Cable & Wireless
B) Western Union
C) Bell Telephone Company
D) American Telegraph Company
  • 28. Where did Thomas Edison live with Ezra Gilliland?
A) Cincinnati
B) New York City
C) Detroit
D) Boston
  • 29. Who allowed Edison to live and work in the basement of his home in Elizabeth, New Jersey?
A) Franklin Leonard Pope
B) Ezra Gilliland
C) Charles Batchelor
D) Samuel Laws
  • 30. What did Edison and Franklin Leonard Pope found in October 1869?
A) A telegraph school
B) Their own electrical engineering company
C) A stock brokerage firm
D) A chemistry research lab
  • 31. Who collaborated with Edison at the factory on improvements to the telegraph?
A) Samuel Laws
B) Franklin Leonard Pope
C) Ezra Gilliland
D) Charles Batchelor
  • 32. How much did Edison receive in 1874 for inventing the first telegraph that could simultaneously transmit four messages through a single wire?
A) $100,000
B) $30,000
C) $10,000
D) $50,000
  • 33. What did Edison invest in with the money received for his telegraph invention?
A) A telegraph company in New York
B) The Port Huron street railway
C) A battery manufacturing business
D) A printing press company
  • 34. In which year was the Menlo Park laboratory established?
A) 1880
B) 1887
C) 1877
D) 1876
  • 35. Where was the Menlo Park laboratory located?
A) Massachusetts
B) New York
C) New Jersey
D) California
  • 36. What invention did Edison's Menlo Park laboratory initially fund?
A) Light bulb
B) Carbon microphone
C) Quadruplex telegraph
D) Phonograph
  • 37. Who was credited with discovering the semiconductor effect before Edison's work was acknowledged?
A) Alexander Graham Bell
B) David Edward Hughes
C) Emile Berliner
D) Thomas Edison
  • 38. What did Edison believe was the worst part of Bell's telephone?
A) The receiver
B) The microphone
C) The transmitter
D) The wiring
  • 39. What publication did Edison fund in 1880?
A) Scientific American
B) Nature
C) Popular Science
D) Science
  • 40. Who took over the journal 'Science' after Edison gave it up?
A) David Edward Hughes
B) Emile Berliner
C) Alexander Graham Bell
D) Thomas Edison
  • 41. Who was hired by Edison in 1878 and later became the general manager?
A) Jesse Lippincott
B) John Ott
C) Fred Ott
D) Francis Robbins Upton
  • 42. Who described Edison as 'the most ingenious inventor in this country... or in any other'?
A) J. P. Morgan
B) Joseph Henry
C) Alexander Graham Bell
D) Hermann von Helmholtz
  • 43. What was the power output of the first steam-generating power station Edison switched on in London?
A) 120 volts
B) 600 kW
C) 110 volts
D) 93 kW
  • 44. What was a novelty of Edison's centralized mining operation in Ogdensburg?
A) Electrically powered seventy ton rollers
B) Manual labor force
C) Solar-powered machinery
D) Steam-powered conveyor belts
  • 45. What did Edison use to improve X-ray images in his experiments?
A) Nickel-iron electrodes
B) Calcium tungstate screens
C) Lye electrolyte
D) Lead acid batteries
  • 46. What was the size of Edison's Menlo Park laboratory after a decade?
A) Two city blocks
B) Five city blocks
C) One city block
D) Half a city block
  • 47. What voltage did Pearl Street Station's electrical power distribution system provide?
A) 110 volts direct current (DC)
B) 120 volts AC
C) 220 volts DC
D) 220 volts AC
  • 48. What type of battery did Edison focus on for electric cars?
A) Lead acid battery
B) Nickel-cadmium battery
C) Calcium tungstate battery
D) Alkaline battery
  • 49. In which year did Edison visit an industrial exhibition in Sudbury, Ontario?
A) 1910
B) 1901
C) 1895
D) 1905
  • 50. How many customers did Pearl Street Station's system have initially?
A) 1000 customers
B) 508 customers
C) 600 customers
D) 1200 customers
  • 51. In what year did Edison lose majority control in the merger that formed Edison General Electric?
A) 1889
B) 1895
C) 1892
D) 1890
  • 52. When were the first successful tests of Edison's prototype film camera publicly seen?
A) January 15, 1895
B) May 20, 1891
C) 1903
D) April 1896
  • 53. Why were customers not accepting iron with significant phosphorus content?
A) It was too expensive
B) It ruined the Bessemer process
C) It was too brittle
D) It was too heavy
  • 54. Who discovered X-rays before Thomas Edison learned about them?
A) Clarence Dally
B) Henry Ford
C) Wilhelm Röntgen
D) Lord Kelvin
  • 55. Where did Edison open a second office to expand influence in New York?
A) Lynn, Massachusetts
B) 65th Avenue
C) Pearl Street
D) Holborn Viaduct
  • 56. What year did Edison demonstrate a mature nickel-iron battery?
A) 1908
B) 1910
C) 1904
D) 1912
  • 57. What was Edison's goal with his system of electrical illumination?
A) Portable lighting
B) Deploy in a large-scale commercial utility
C) Personal home lighting
D) Street lighting
  • 58. In which decade did Thomas Edison become interested in mining?
A) Late 1870s
B) Early 1890s
C) Early 1900s
D) Early 1880s
  • 59. Who did Edison likely know was working on a similar battery design?
A) Clarence Dally
B) Waldemar Jungner
C) Lord Kelvin
D) Charles Dally
  • 60. What combination did Edison's lab eventually settle on for the rechargeable battery?
A) Nickel-iron combination
B) Calcium tungstate combination
C) Lye-nickel combination
D) Lead-acid combination
  • 61. Where were Edison's kinetoscopes first installed for public viewing?
A) Belgian fairs
B) Edison's film studio
C) Penny arcades
D) Coney Island
  • 62. When did Edison first meet Henry Ford?
A) 1910
B) 1901
C) 1908
D) 1896
  • 63. What did Edison do when worried about losing the patent fight?
A) Sued Waldemar Jungner
B) Petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt
C) Sought funding from Henry Ford
D) Stopped working on the battery
  • 64. In what year did Edison first publicly demonstrate the phonograph?
A) 1877
B) 1878
C) 1880
D) 1879
  • 65. On what date did Edison turn on the electrical lighting system for Manhattan?
A) May 1880
B) November 4, 1879
C) September 4, 1882
D) January 27, 1880
  • 66. Which invention was falsely advertised as an Edison invention to boost sales?
A) Vitascope
B) Kinetophonograph
C) Kinetoscope
D) Kinetograph
  • 67. What was one of Edison's attempts during World War I?
A) Designing new naval ships
B) Improving submarine detection
C) Developing new aircraft
D) Creating new naval uniforms
  • 68. What device did Edison invent to measure infrared radiation?
A) Phonograph
B) Tasimeter
C) Electric light
D) Voltaic pile
  • 69. What did Edison use as the semiconductor in his carbon microphone?
A) Copper
B) Glass
C) Specially coated rubber
D) Wood
  • 70. What health issue was beginning to affect Edison in the late 1890s?
A) Diabetes
B) Arthritis
C) Tuberculosis
D) Heart disease
  • 71. What was the first invention by Thomas Edison that gained him wider notice?
A) Tasimeter
B) Electric train
C) Phonograph
D) Electric light bulb
  • 72. Who controlled the new company, General Electric, after the merger?
A) Thomson-Houston board
B) Henry Villard
C) J. P. Morgan
D) Edison General Electric board
  • 73. Which company owned rights to Sawyer's patent and took a market share from Edison by 1889?
A) Ediswan
B) Westinghouse
C) General Electric
D) National Electric Lamp Association
  • 74. What percentage of the US electrical business did General Electric control after the merger?
A) One-quarter
B) Half
C) Three-quarters
D) One-third
  • 75. What project did Edison move on to after deciding to retire from the lighting business?
A) AC power transmission project
B) Gas lighting project
C) Iron ore refining project
D) Telegraph project
  • 76. What material was used for the first phonograph recordings by Edison?
A) Paper
B) Cotton
C) Tinfoil
D) Wax
  • 77. In what year did Edison's phonograph company produce a cheap model for entertainment?
A) 1887
B) 1915
C) 1900
D) 1899
  • 78. What voltage standard did Edison's high-resistance filament lead to in the United States?
A) 220V
B) 50V
C) 110V
D) 240V
  • 79. What was one reason for Edison's anti-AC stance?
A) Edison could not grasp the more abstract theories behind AC.
B) Edison fully understood AC and its benefits.
C) Edison believed AC was more efficient.
D) Edison thought AC was safer than DC.
  • 80. In which year did Thomas Edison head the Naval Consulting Board?
A) 1915
B) 1916
C) 1917
D) 1914
  • 81. Who founded Edison's Kinétoscope Français in Brussels?
A) Leon Gaumont
B) Edwin S. Porter
C) Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki
D) Thomas Armat
  • 82. What was the first commercial application of Edison's incandescent light bulb?
A) Manhattan streetlights
B) Edison Electric Light Company
C) London streetlights
D) Columbia train
  • 83. What was the primary reason high-grade iron ore was scarce on the east coast?
A) Political restrictions
B) Environmental regulations
C) High costs due to shipping from the Midwest
D) Lack of mining technology
  • 84. Where did Edison purchase a mine after his initial venture?
A) Sudbury, Ontario
B) Cleveland, Ohio
C) Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania
D) Ogdensburg, New Jersey
  • 85. How many employees did the Edison Storage Battery Company have by 1904?
A) 450
B) 1000
C) 600
D) 300
  • 86. What was the price of Edison's phonograph in 1900?
A) $10
B) $5
C) $15
D) $20
  • 87. What was the electrolyte used in Edison's mature nickel-iron battery?
A) Lead oxide
B) Water
C) Lye
D) Sulfuric acid
  • 88. Which company formed a joint venture with Edison in Britain to manufacture and market the incandescent electric lamp?
A) General Electric
B) Ediswan
C) Westinghouse
D) National Electric Lamp Association
  • 89. How many AC-based power stations had Westinghouse built by the end of 1887?
A) 50 AC-based power stations
B) 121 DC-based stations
C) 68 AC-based power stations
D) 100 AC-based power stations
  • 90. What system did Edison invent to reduce the copper requirement for electricity distribution?
A) Single-prong wire system
B) Four-prong wire system
C) Three-prong wire system
D) Two-prong wire system
  • 91. What did Edison test to find the best materials for the carbon microphone?
A) 100 materials
B) 50 materials
C) 200 materials
D) 150 materials
  • 92. Who was the president of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company impressed by Edison's demonstration?
A) J. P. Morgan
B) George Westinghouse
C) Henry Villard
D) Spencer Trask
  • 93. What was Edison's initial idea for a commercial product using the phonograph?
A) Talking dolls
B) Public address systems
C) Home entertainment systems
D) Portable radios
  • 94. What did Edison's assistant Clarence Dally suffer from due to X-ray exposure?
A) Lead poisoning
B) Mediastinal cancer
C) Electrical burns
D) Battery-related injuries
  • 95. Which material did Edison eventually settle on for the filament of his incandescent lamp?
A) Bamboo
B) Cotton
C) Cardboard
D) Hemp
  • 96. Who did Edison fire in 1914?
A) Leon Gaumont
B) Thomas Armat
C) Edwin S. Porter
D) William Kennedy Laurie Dickson
  • 97. What was the name of the motion picture camera patented by Edison in 1897?
A) Kinetophonograph
B) Vitascope
C) Kinetograph
D) Kinetoscope
  • 98. What was Edison's patent for that is considered the first US patent for an electronic device?
A) Voltage-regulating
B) Phonograph
C) Electric light
D) Tasimeter
  • 99. What was the title of Edison's film that showed the electrocution of an elephant?
A) Fred Ott's Sneeze
B) The Great Train Robbery
C) The Kiss
D) Electrocuting an Elephant
  • 100. Who began working on the motion picture camera with Thomas Edison in 1888?
A) Leon Gaumont
B) William Kennedy Laurie Dickson
C) Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki
D) Edwin S. Porter
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