SparkNotes: Thomas Edison: Review Quiz

1. Where was Edison born?

(A) Columbus, Ohio

(B) Milan, Ohio

(C) Kansas City, Missouri

(D) Kansas City, Kansas

2. When was Edison born?

(A) 1838

(B) 1860

(C) 1847

(D) 1824

3. What was the family history of the Edisons?

(A) They were political agitators

(B) They were scientists

(C) They were intellectuals

(D) They were shiftless layabouts

4. Who gave Edison most of his formal education?

(A) Teachers

(B) His mother and himself

(C) His father

(D) His minister and his teachers

5. How old was Edison when he left school?

(A) fifteen

(B) eleven

(C) sixteen

(D) twelve

6. What was Edison's first job?

(A) Child laborer at a mill

(B) Walking dogs

(C) Candy butcher on a train

(D) Electrician

7. What was a "tramp telegrapher?"

(A) An itinerant telegraph operator; often highly skilled

(B) A promiscious telegraph operator

(C) A homeless man who played with the telegraph wires

(D) A hobo who followed the telegraph lines across the country

8. What kind of telegraph operator was Edison?

(A) A diligent one

(B) Below average and easily distracted

(C) He was commended for his accuracy

(D) He never was a telegraph operator

9. What was the first telegraph company he worked for?

(A) Gold and Stock Company

(B) Menlo Park

(C) Western Union

(D) Ford

10. In what city was the Court Street factory?

(A) Boston

(B) Newark

(C) New York City

(D) Indianapolis

11. What was Edison's first invention?

(A) A telegraph

(B) A vote recorder

(C) A telephone

(D) Parts for a telegraph

12. What was wrong with this invention?

(A) It didn't work

(B) Edison didn't see the point of it

(C) There was no market for it

(D) People laughed at its appearance

13. When did Edison receive his first contracts?

(A) Fall 1865

(B) Winter 1877

(C) Summer 1850

(D) Spring 1870

14. What business gave him these first contracts?

(A) Western Union

(B) Gold and Stock Company

(C) Thomas Edison, Inc.

(D) Standard Oil, Inc.

15. What were the contracts for?

(A) To develop a light bulb

(B) To develop a vote recorder

(C) To develop a facsimile telegraph and printer

(D) To develop a facsimile telephone

16. What did Edison do with the capital from his first contracts?

(A) He bought a house

(B) He invested in the stock market

(C) He operated telegraph manufacturing shops in Newark

(D) He bought materials for new experiments

17. What was the first Edison invention to spark a court battle?

(A) The vote recorder

(B) The quadruplex telegraph

(C) The improved telephone

(D) The facsimile printer

18. Who were the companies and people who fought over this invention?

(A) Henry Ford and Cornelius Vanderbilt

(B) Gold and Stock and Western Union

(C) Gold and Stock and Joseph Swan

(D) Western Union and Jay Gould

19. What did the battle do for Edison's reputation?

(A) He became known as a talented maverick

(B) He was blacklisted from the invention industry for ten years

(C) He was fired by his employing company

(D) He got a boost as a shrewd businessman

20. What did Edison do with the capital he received when his contract was renewed after the court battle in 1876?

(A) He established a research laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey

(B) He fled the country

(C) He established a research laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey

(D) He invested the money in oil and iron

21. How many workers were at Menlo Park, approximately?

(A) fifteen

(B) thirty

(C) five

(D) fifty

22. What was the environment at Menlo Park?

(A) Laid-back and lax, no hard work

(B) A rigid hierarchy and lots of supervision

(C) Demanding hours but a close-knit atmosphere

(D) nine to five every day

23. What were some of the inventions created at Menlo Park?

(A) The telephone and the phonograph

(B) The vote recorder and the storage battery

(C) The Kinetoscope and cement

(D) The phonograph and the electric light system

24. What is the Menlo Park facility a predecessor of?

(A) Henry Ford's assembly lines

(B) Modern educational facilities

(C) Academic institutions

(D) Contemporary research institutes

25. Who was Mary Stilwell?

(A) Edison's first wife

(B) Edison's mother

(C) Edison's second daughter

(D) Edison's mistress