💡 Everyday Inventions Trivia Questions & Answers
Zippers, Velcro, microwaves and the clever things you use without thinking. Below are 30 free everyday inventions trivia questions with answers — part of Inventions trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Inventions quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Everyday Inventions trivia questions
Q1. In 1938, Ruth Wakefield mixed chopped chocolate into her dough, creating what popular dessert?
Answer: The chocolate chip cookie
💡 Nestlé later struck a deal with Wakefield — the rights to her Toll House name and recipe for $1 and a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Q2. Cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith launched Crayola crayons in which year?
Answer: 1903
💡 Binney & Smith had made industrial pigments for decades before branching into children's crayons.
Q3. Which winter ear-warmer did teenage Chester Greenwood patent back in 1877?
Answer: Earmuffs
💡 He dreamed them up as a cold-eared teen in Maine and built a factory that supplied them for decades.
Q4. Which inventor is credited with the 1893 'Clasp Locker,' the earliest ancestor of the zipper?
Answer: Whitcomb Judson
💡 Judson's version kept popping open, so it took another inventor 20 years to perfect it.
Q5. A hunting trip covered in prickly plant burrs inspired which fastening invention?
Answer: Velcro
💡 The inventor examined the burrs under a microscope and saw tiny hooks catching on fabric loops.
Q6. What Swiss engineer invented the hook-and-loop fastener now known by its brand name?
Answer: George de Mestral
💡 The product's name blends two French words: velour (velvet) and crochet (hook).
Q7. What clothing fastener did Walter Hunt patent in April 1849 by twisting a single piece of wire?
Answer: The safety pin
💡 His design added a clasp that covered the sharp point, plus a coiled spring at the bend.
Q8. A chemist's 1968 attempt at a super-strong adhesive accidentally led to what sticky office staple?
Answer: Post-it Notes
💡 The weak glue sat unused inside 3M for six years before anyone found a use for it.
Q9. Samuel Fox's 1852 steel-ribbed frame made which rainy-day item lighter and stronger?
Answer: The umbrella
💡 He supposedly built it partly to use up leftover steel meant for corset stays.
Q10. What nickname did basketball player Chuck Taylor lend to the Converse All-Star sneaker?
Answer: Chucks
💡 His endorsement of the 1917 high-top was so successful the shoes got renamed after him.
Q11. 3M's underwhelming 1977 test-market launch of sticky notes used what temporary product name?
Answer: Press 'n Peel
💡 Renaming it Post-it and giving out free samples in Boise, Idaho turned its fortunes around.
Q12. US Rubber's Keds, generally called the first mass-produced canvas sneaker, launched in which decade?
Answer: The 1910s
💡 US Rubber had just consolidated 30 separate shoe brands into one company in 1916.
Q13. Jesse Reno's 1892 'inclined elevator' had its 1896 debut at which Coney Island attraction?
Answer: Old Iron Pier
💡 About 75,000 riders climbed Reno's moving stairway during its two-week Coney Island run.
Q14. In what year did Garrett Morgan patent his three-position traffic signal?
Answer: 1923
💡 Morgan later sold the signal's rights to General Electric for $40,000.
Q15. King Camp Gillette's disposable safety-razor blade patent was granted in which year?
Answer: 1904
💡 Only 51 razors sold in 1903 — by 1904, yearly sales had jumped to 90,000 razors.
Q16. Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid in 1920 to treat frequent cuts suffered by whom?
Answer: His wife, Josephine
💡 Dickson worked as a Johnson & Johnson cotton buyer and later became a company vice president.
Q17. What Swedish-American engineer patented the 1913 zipper, calling it the 'Hookless Fastener'?
Answer: Gideon Sundback
💡 He increased the teeth count to ten per inch, which finally stopped the fastener from splitting open.
Q18. Walter Hunt invented a wire fastener with a protective clasp in 1849 to pay off what kind of debt?
Answer: A $15 debt
💡 He sold the rights to his invention for just $400 and never made another cent from it.
Q19. In 1899, William Middlebrook patented machinery for producing which small office item?
Answer: The paper clip
💡 His manufacturing patent led to the clip being trademarked as the 'Gem' clip in 1904.
Q20. What 3M colleague of Spencer Silver came up with using the leftover adhesive to anchor bookmarks?
Answer: Art Fry
💡 He'd attended one of Silver's seminars on the mystery glue years earlier.
Q21. László Bíró, who patented the modern ballpoint pen in 1938, first showed it at a fair in which city?
Answer: Budapest
💡 He fled to Argentina in 1941, where ballpoint pens are still nicknamed after him.
Q22. What Philadelphia stationer patented the combined pencil-and-eraser in 1858?
Answer: Hymen Lipman
💡 He later sold the patent for a jaw-dropping $100,000 before it was invalidated.
Q23. Which ancient Arctic people crafted early sunglasses from flattened walrus ivory with narrow slits?
Answer: The Inuit
💡 The narrow slits cut down glare bouncing off snow and ice, not sunlight directly.
Q24. What British optician began experimenting with tinted glass lenses in 1752, a sunglasses pioneer?
Answer: James Ayscough
💡 He wasn't blocking sun glare at all — he thought green and blue tints eased eye strain.
Q25. Around 3500 BC in Mesopotamia, the wheel's very first job was which of these, before transport?
Answer: Spinning clay pottery
💡 Wheeled carts and chariots didn't show up until roughly 300 years after the potter's wheel.
Q26. Functional buttonholes that let buttons fasten clothing first appeared in 13th-century where?
Answer: Germany
💡 Before buttonholes, people relied on cords, brooches, and buckles to close their clothes.
Q27. Archaeologists trace the earliest decorative buttons to which ancient civilization, circa 3000 BC?
Answer: The Indus Valley Civilization
💡 Those early buttons were carved from shells and worked as status symbols, not fasteners.
Q28. Robert Hinchliffe is credited with a scissors breakthrough in 1761 by switching to which material?
Answer: Cast steel
💡 His steel blades held a sharper edge than the bronze tools Egyptians and Romans had used for centuries.
Q29. William Addis is said to have designed the modern toothbrush in 1780 while doing what?
Answer: Serving time in prison
💡 He carved a bone handle and threaded it with boar bristles, then made a fortune selling them after release.
Q30. What synthetic material replaced animal-hair bristles in toothbrushes starting in 1938?
Answer: Nylon
💡 DuPont's new nylon bristles were sturdier and grew far less bacteria than boar hair.
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