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Inventors and Scientists - Trevor Baylis' British Inventors

Trevor Baylis, the English inventor, is best known for inventing the wind-up radio. He invented it in response to the need to communicate information about AIDS to the people of Africa.

This quiz looks at 10 of the Greatest British Inventors as compiled by Trevor Baylis. Good luck!

  1. What is the name of this British inventor?

    Photograph courtesy of en.wikisource.org
    • Born: 22 August 1771
    • Place: London
    • Nationality: British
    • Was interested in astronomy
    • Built a lock offering a reward of 200 Guineas to anyone who could pick it - this challenge stood for 47 years
    • Set up own business after being refused an increase in his wage
    • Developed the screw-cutting lathe
    • He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology
    • He married and had four sons
    • William, the second son, became a civil engineer, being one of the founders of the Institute of Civil Engineers

  2. In 1955, Christopher Cockerell built a working model of a hovercraft from what kind of wood?

    Photograph courtesy of solarnavigator.net
    • Born: 4 June 1910
    • Place: Cambridge
    • Nationality: British
    • His father was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris
    • Started his career working for Marconi
    • Tested his theories using a hair-dryer
    • Awarded the Howard N. Potts Medal
    • Memorial erected at Hythe
    • Developed the Cockerill Raft
    • He was an English engineer, inventor of the hovercraft
    • Cockerell was knighted in 1969 for his services to engineering

  3. What was the name given to the head of a ventriloquist dummy that John Logie Baird used in his early experiments to transmit a televised image between rooms?

    Photograph courtesy of bairdtelevision.com
    • Born: 13 August 1888
    • Place: Helensburgh
    • Nationality: Scottish
    • Never graduated due to World War I
    • First working television used items including a hatbox and a pair of scissors
    • Survived a 1000-volt electric shock
    • Held his first public demonstration in Selfridges
    • Was called a lunatic by the Daily Express news editor

  4. At which RAF base did Frank Whittle start his three-year training as an aircraft mechanic in 1923?

    Photograph courtesy of earlsdon.org.uk
    • Born: 1 June 1907
    • Place: Earlsdon
    • Nationality: British
    • Invented the turbojet engine
    • Received a knighthood
    • He emigrated to the US
    • He flew solo after only 13.5 hours instruction
    • Was almost court martialled after a public complaint about his low flying and aerobatics
    • He was awarded the CBE
    • In August 1996, Whittle died of lung cancer at his home in Columbia, Maryland

  5. What is the name of this British inventor?

    Photograph courtesy of sciencephoto.com
    • Born: 24 March 1693
    • Place: Foulby near Wakefield
    • Nationality: British
    • Built his first longcase clock at the age of 20
    • Took him five years to build H1
    • There is a memorial tablet in Westminster Abbey
    • Legend has it that at the age of six while in bed with smallpox he was given a watch to amuse himself
    • Captain James Cook used K1, a copy of H4, on his second and third voyages
    • In total, he received £23,065 for his work on chronometers

  6. In which county was Barnes Wallis' bouncing bomb tested?

    Photograph courtesy of telegraph.co.uk
    • Born: 26 September 1887
    • Place: Ripley, Derbyshire
    • Nationality: British
    • Experimented with skipping marbles over water tanks
    • Was awarded £10,000 for his war work
    • Among his other inventions were the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb
    • In golf, a 'Barnes Wallis' is a shot that bounces over a water hazard

  7. Percy Shaw owned which make of car?

    Photograph courtesy of topfoto.co.uk
    • Born: 15 April 1890
    • Place: Halifax
    • Nationality: British
    • Laboured in a cloth mill from the age of 13
    • His most famous invention was the cat's eye for lighting the way along roads in the dark
    • Sales were slow initially until the Ministry of Transport approved it which sent demand rocketing
    • He was rewarded with an OBE for services to exports in the birthday honours list in 1965
    • Became something of an eccentric in later life

  8. What were the aircraft detection and tracking stations invented by Robert Watson-Watt called?

    Photograph courtesy of digital.nls.uk
    • Born: 13 April 1892
    • Place: Brechin, Angus, Scotland
    • Nationality: Scottish
    • A descendant of James Watt, inventor of the steam engine
    • Originally he wanted a job in the War Office but joined the Meteorological Office
    • Reportedly pulled over in Canada for speeding by a radar and said he would never have invented it if he had known what the police were going to do with it
    • He is considered by many to be the 'inventor of radar'
    • Watson-Watt died in 1973, aged 81, in Inverness

  9. In 1810 Richard Trevithick caught which disease?

    Photograph courtesy of omeriani.com
    • Born: 13 April 1771
    • Place: Tregajorren, Cornwall
    • Nationality: British
    • His teacher said he was a disobedient, slow, obstinate, spoiled boy
    • For a while his neighbour was William Murdoch the steam carriage pioneer
    • He built a full-size steam road locomotive and named it 'Puffing Devil'
    • One of Trevithick's pumping engines exploded in 1803 killing four men
    • Was penniless when he died
    • Colleagues at Hall's works paid a night watchman to guard his grave at night to deter grave robbers as body snatching was common back then

  10. What was the name of the world's first adhesive postage stamp invented by Rowland Hill?

    Photograph courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
    • Born: 3 December 1795
    • Place: Kidderminster
    • Nationality: British
    • Became a student teacher in his father's school at the age of 11
    • Letters were originally paid for by the recipient, not the sender
    • Became a director for the London and Brighton Railway after being dismissed from the Post Office when the Conservative Party won re-election
    • He lowered the fairs from London to Brighton and offered special excursion trains
    • Returned to the Post Office after the Conservatives left
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