Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from Popular Electronics,
published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
Most of these matches
of the devices and its inventor are pretty easy for people who have been around
electronics for any length of time (well, not if the length of time is a day or
two), but a couple just might stump you. This Electronics Inventors Quiz appeared
in a 1963 edition of Popular Electronics, so you won't be challenged with knowing
the inventors of the LCD or MEMS devices, but neither will you have to know who
came up with the abacus or the Archimedes screw :-).
Electronics Inventors Quiz
By Robert P. Balin
Electronic Inventors Quiz
1) Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley _____
2) De Forest _____
3) Edison _____
4) Faraday _____
5) Franklin _____
6) Lissajous _____
7) Roentgen _____
8) Weston _____
9) Wheatstone _____
10) Yagi _____
See answers below.
Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular
Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, and Radio News were published
over the years - some really simple and others not so simple. Robert P. Balin
created most of the quizzes for Popular Electronics. This is a listing
of all I have posted thus far.
1 - F John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley invented
the point-contact transistor in 1948. 2 - J Lee De Forest
invented the grid Audion, the first practical three-element amplifier tube, in
1906. 3 - E Thomas A. Edison invented the cylinder phonograph,
the forerunner of the modern record player,
in 1877. 4 - I Michael Faraday discovered the principle
of the electric motor in 1821, and of the transformer in 1831. 5 - H
Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1750. 6 - G
Jules A. Lissajous first observed the combination of two waveforms now called "Lissajous
figures"
in 1857. The effect is often seen when using the modern oscilloscope.
7 - B Wilhelm K. Roentgen first observed the effects of "Roentgen rays,"
or X rays, in 1895. 8 - C Edward Weston invented the Weston
cadmium cell in 1893. It is still in worldwide use as a standard
of electromotive force or voltage. 9 - A Sir Charles Wheatstone
first demonstrated the bridge circuit that now bears his name in 1843. It
was originally devised by Samuel H. Christi in 1833. 10 - D Hidetsugu
Yagi developed his directional parasitic element antenna in Japan in the early 1920·s
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