Electronics Inventors Quiz
November 1963 Popular Electronics

November 1963 Popular Electronics Table of Contents 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 only a day or two), but there are a couple that just might stump you. This "Electronics Inventors Quiz" appeared in the November 1963 issue of Popular Electronics magazine, 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 :-). I managed to score 100%, but that was admittedly partly luck in deciding between two men for items "B" and "C." The other eight should be a piece of cake for most RF Cafe visitors.

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.

Inventors Quiz Answers

  2 - J    Lee De Forest invented the grid Audion, the first practical three-element ampli-fier 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

Posted June 2, 2023
(updated from original post on 1/3/2013)