Quick Quirk Quiz: Science & Technology
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Test your knowledge of the things that make our lives easier in these 28 true tales behind researchers and their discoveries. Can you match the inventors to their inventions after hearing the story behind their development?
Janet Spencer - Trivia Queen
Janet Spencer:Trivia Queen of the UniverseRoyal Ruler of Useless InformationMaster of Arcane Knowledge and Extraneous LoreKeeper of Forgotten Facts and Startling StatisticsFreelance Hysterics * Creative Profanities * Quantum PerplexitiesJanet Spencer was born in 1960 to a poor white sharecropper in Illinois. At 12, she slipped aboard a southbound freighter headed for Australia, where she was further raised by a pack of wild dingoes. Naturally curious and totally obsessed with the minor details of life, she traveled to London to join the Royal Astronomical Society to learn more of the world and the universe. However, the RAS had a long-standing ban against allowing in poor white sharecroppers half raised by wild dingoes, so she instead camped outside and counting the bricks making up the snobby institution. This was a pivotal experience for her. Finding there were exactly 17,431 bricks started her on her lifelong quest for small details, amazing truths, and petty coincidences. The Trivia Queen claimed her crown!Since then, she has been roaming the world from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego, counting bricks, observing small insects, and measuring the average number of grains in a typical salt shaker. With such a vast storehouse of trivial knowledge, she now embarks on a new quest: to share this information with her fellow humans - stumping experts, amazing laymen, and bringing wide-eyed blank stares to all those around her. She is the author of several books including "Montana Trivia" and "Yellowstone Trivia" published by www.RiverbendPublishing.comJanet Spencer spends her spare time serving as chairwoman of the Associated Association of Associated Associations, playing with spatulas, and conversing with ducks.
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Quick Quirk Quiz - Janet Spencer - Trivia Queen
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
The Quick Quirk Quiz
The Surprising Stories, Hidden History,
and Unusual Origins Behind Familiar Things
By Janet Spencer, Trivia Queen of the Universe
Royal Ruler of Useless Information
Master of Arcane Knowledge & Extraneous Lore
Keeper of Forgotten Facts & Startling Statistics
Published by Janet Spencer at Smashwords.com
Copyright 2009 Janet Spencer
Discover other works by Janet Spencer at
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/triviaqueen
www.TriviaQueen.com
www.RiverbendPublishing.com
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Thank you for your support!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A New Color
A Synthetic Silk
A Slippery Substance
A New Raincoat
A Clean Shoe
A New Glue
The Right Way to Make Rubber
A New Rubber Company
Better Tires
A Reliable Source of Heat
A Sterile Dish
A Big Calculator
A Camera for the Common People
A More Affordable Camera
A Car Radio
A Transistor Radio
A Better Sound System
A New Computer
Wireless United
A Color TV Game Machine
A Very Large Number
A Sudden Fright
A New Screw
Experiments with Fish Oil
Oil of a Thousand Uses
A New, Improved Paint
Nine Kittens and a Flashlight
A Better Pen
A New Color
In the mid-1800s malaria caused many deaths. The only remedy was quinine, painstakingly derived from the bark of the cinchona tree. After hearing a lecture on the difficulties of extracting quinine, a chemistry student named William Perkin decided to try to synthesize quinine. He started with aniline, made from distilling the indigo plant, because he thought the chemical structure was similar enough to quinine that he could alter it. After mixing in carbons and hydrogens, the result was a black sludge. Perkin threw it away, then washed his flasks out with water and alcohol but was interested to see that the sludge residue turned the water and alcohol purple. Experimenting further, Perkin extracted the substance that caused the color, and sent samples to a friend in the dye business. The purple substance was