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The Life of Thomas Edison

Guess these facts about the life of the American inventor Thomas Edison.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: February 20, 2017
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First submittedFebruary 16, 2017
Times taken4,473
Average score57.9%
Rating3.92
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Hint
Answer
His most famous invention
Practical Light Bulb
His invention for recording and playing back sound
Phonograph
His invention for displaying stock prices
Stock Ticker
His middle name
Alva
Diet he shared with Gandhi and Hitler
Vegetarian
He co-founded this company, abbreviated GE
General Electric
His nickname: The ______ of Menlo Park
Wizard
His laboratory was located in this state
New Jersey
He took camping trips with this auto tycoon
Henry Ford
He built Pearl Street Station, the world's first …
Power Plant
He built houses and even furniture out of this industrial material
Cement
He proposed to his wife using this code
Morse Code
He was given a patent for this device, which he called a "Kinetograph"
Movie Camera
It is (wrongly) claimed that he helped electrocute a killer animal named Topsy.
What type of animal was Topsy?
Elephant
He thought AC power was dangerous. What does AC stand for?
Alternating Current
This Serbian inventor worked for him briefly
Nikola Tesla
This soccer player was named for him
Pelé (Edson Arantes
do Nascimento )
 
 
Complete these famous Edison quotes
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent ____________
Perspiration
_________ is all bunk
Religion
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46 Comments
Quizmaster
+6
Level ∞
Feb 16, 2017
Edison has to be one of the most unfairly maligned people in American history. I'm tempted to go on a rant, but I'll just leave it at that. I encourage everyone to read the Wikipedia article to learn more about his unique talents and progressive values.
chondrichthyess
+1
Level 61
Feb 16, 2017
But I've always heard that he outsourced his inventions using slave labor and never really invented much himself, as well as stole ideas and patents from other people. Now I don't know what to believe.

Sounds kinda like Columbus. He's a hero who discovered the New World but also a genocidal maniac

kapulani3
+8
Level 74
Feb 16, 2017
You have to read a lot of different sources from different perspectives to come close to the truth anymore. Histories and biographies are easily slanted to make any individual or culture into heroes or villains when the truth is most individuals or cultures are neither heroes or villains -- just flawed people living acceptable lives based on the mores of their time. Too many people pushing ideologies so you can't trust any one source.
Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Feb 17, 2017
@TinklePork. This is exactly the sort of stuff that Edison is unfairly smeared with. Here's what Wikipedia says.

Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons and later noted, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill." Edison's philosophy of nonviolence extended to animals as well, about which he stated: "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
Djilas
+2
Level 83
Feb 16, 2017
And what is this maligned view? Anti-Tesla fairy tales or something else?
cpgatbyu
+3
Level 85
Feb 16, 2017
Elephant snuff films.
Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Feb 17, 2017
Its bizarre that Edison and Tesla are construed as rivals in the modern imagination. If Edison had a rival, it was George Westinghouse.
WolfCam
+2
Level 66
Feb 18, 2017
And aging
Pelican12
+1
Level 59
Jun 24, 2017
@Quizmaster I would say it is his rivalry with Westinghouse that has led to his portrayal. The war of currents was a big black mark on his career that you can't really claim he should've won
IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 89
Aug 2, 2018
His patent lawsuits that led the film industry to California to get out of royalties opened up a huge and lasting mass media campaign against him. If you had lived in his times, the technology would have come, but you would've waited for it a little longer.
MumbleBear
+1
Level 44
Jun 24, 2017
Quizmaster, did you write that Wikipedia article? ;)
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Jun 29, 2017
About 10 years ago I started seeing these somewhat silly graphics making the rounds online about how awesome Tesla was and what an evil monster Edison was... this meme really caught on for some reason and then all of a sudden there were all these weird Tesla fan-boy (and girls). Somewhere there's a paper to be written on how a 60-years-deceased nerd suddenly becomes hip. Conspiracy? I think perhaps it was started by Elon Musk, who co-founded Tesla Motors in 2003 so about 5 years before I recall the memes making the rounds.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Jun 30, 2017
I looked on Google trends for "Tesla" and I think my memory was exactly right. There is a spike in searches around July 2009, middle of the first year that I was in Saudi Arabia, which is when I first recalled seeing those memes going around. Then it fell off and didn't spike again until 2013 which I think is when the cars started hitting the market. If you look at "Tesla vs Edison" there is a small upward trend starting around the same time and then a huge spike in March 2013 for some reason.

Ah.. found the reason for that. March 11, 2013 Epic Rap Battles of History released Tesla vs Edison.

IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 89
Aug 2, 2018
Tesla's always been a famous second-ran, always, but the maligning of Edison is recent along with all the other modern internet driven "yeah, but" histories. Freemasonry, Cleopatra (a Greek) was black, Obama or Hilary started ISIS ( while he was an alderman in Illinois and she was a junior senator during Bush's presidency...huh?), Bush Sr killed Kennedy, Pepsi is better than Coke...the list is so stupid that the Edison tails seem realistic.
peardestroyer
+1
Level 60
Sep 2, 2020
I agree with Quizmaster. The world would be much different without Edison, and some famous people today (like Albert Einstein) would be far less successful without his inventions
bobroo
+1
Level 92
Feb 16, 2017
Might want to fix that Pele answer.
stevediverse
+1
Level 89
Feb 16, 2017
That's the only one I got 'wrong'.
alberici
+1
Level 74
Feb 16, 2017
Yes, please accept "Pele"
lottoid
+1
Level 89
Feb 17, 2017
+1
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Feb 17, 2017
Fixed!
AlejandroAP
+1
Level 81
Feb 16, 2017
Very interesting quiz
Gamer1162
+1
Level 60
Feb 16, 2017
Alright, who's that 1% that got Pelé?
angrobper14
+2
Level 84
Feb 16, 2017
Maybe someone pissed off enough to redo the quiz specifically to answer it...
marquez100
+2
Level 88
Feb 17, 2017
edison cavani?
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Feb 17, 2017
Was he named after Edison? I can't find evidence.
Djilas
+1
Level 83
Feb 20, 2017
Mirror says:

"Mum and dad wanted to name their son after Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, but made an error registering his birth"

While we're at it, Cristiano Ronaldo was named after Ronald Reagan, you can add that to presidential quiz :)

Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Feb 20, 2017
Thanks. Cavani will work now.
Gassu
+1
Level 70
Jan 16, 2019
Phew! Cavani was the only I could think of
joeythelemur
+2
Level 83
Feb 17, 2017
And isn't his name "EdiNson" anyway?
Djilas
+1
Level 83
Jun 26, 2017
Yes, it's misspelled, just like Pele's name.
blinky
+1
Level 58
Nov 30, 2017
Maybe you're thinking of Edinson Volquez, the baseball pitcher.
WolfCam
+2
Level 66
Feb 18, 2017
Another good Edison Quote "I haven't failed I just found 10000 ways the don't work."
nichster
+1
Level 55
Feb 19, 2017
I'd love to see a 'The Life of Albert Einstein' quiz. Einstein did more than any human could imagine.
onite
+1
Level 78
Feb 20, 2017
I can credit Epic Rap Battles of History for at least two of my correct answers on this one :)
buck1017
+3
Level 78
Feb 27, 2017
I have no strong feelings about Edison one way or another...I'm more ticked off that you seem to think cement and concrete are the same thing. You can't build anything with cement. It's a powder. Concrete is the stuff you build with. Saying cement and concrete are interchangeable is like saying chocolate cake is the same thing as flour. Sorry...civil engineer's uncivil rant over...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement

ChipOtley
+1
Level 74
Jun 24, 2017
if concrete contains cement, then surely the answer is still OK? It's still made from cement ... and other stuff?
IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 89
Aug 2, 2018
Cement is a binding agent, including glues. Check it against its own verb form.
InterAlia
+1
Level 76
Jul 10, 2024
Thanks. I was hoping someone had already pointed this out.
Borgir
+5
Level 63
Jun 24, 2017
It would have been cool of you to accept "film camera"
BiggieSmalls
+5
Level 74
Jun 24, 2017
Why is motion picture camera not accepted? Here is a quote from Wikipedia, the source QM loves to quote, "Dickson and his team at the Edison lab also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative MOTION PICTURE CAMERA with rapid intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations"
YantheMan
+1
Level 66
Jun 25, 2017
Cool quiz, but Hitler was not a vegetarian.
IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 89
Aug 2, 2018
Yes, he was. He established laws against animal cruelty that were far ahead of their day. I'm guessing he was one of those people who says, "I like animals a lot more than I like people".
Thorvald
+2
Level 71
Jul 2, 2017
Please accept video camera or film camera
IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 89
Aug 2, 2018
What was it, 1982? How about camcorder then?
freon22tec
+1
Level 58
Nov 1, 2018
Can't get a Milan, OH mention?
GrammarBeane1
+1
Level 83
Dec 13, 2022
I feel like we're not talking enough about the fact that he made furniture out of cement. Why would you make furniture out of cement??
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