Transportation Quiz
The old nickname "iron horse" referred to the:
- In 1844 a Brooklyn newspaper described a new train as a powerful horse: "the iron horse with its lungs of brass and sinews of steel, came dashing along at a furious rate, puffing volumes of smoke and flame from its nostrils . . .The comparison stuck."
The covers on covered wagons were made of:
- The covered wagons, known as "camels of the prairie", were covered with canvas. From 1725 until the 1830s, these sturdy wagons—which could even float on water—transported most westward travelers.
The first subway system was built in:
- London's subway system, the first and still the largest in the world, opened in 1863. Boston's system is the oldest in the United States; it was opened in 1897.
In 1927, when Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly across the Atlantic, the journey took him:
- It took Lindbergh 33 ½ hours to cross the Atlantic Ocean in "The Spirit of St. Louis", his single-engine plane.
The first wheels were made of:
- Although the wheel was invented during the Bronze Age, the earliest examples were made of stone. They looked like flat pancakes with holes in the middle. They were used in pottery and to pull carts.
The first balloon trip transported:
- On June 5, 1783, the Montgolfier brothers in France sent a duck, a sheep, and a rooster into the air for eight minutes. The animals returned safely, thus paving the way for human balloon travel to begin later that year.
Sputnik, the first satellite to go into orbit, was closest in size to:
- Sputnik, the size of a basketball, was launched by the Soviet Union on October 5, 1957.
In a canal, locks are areas where:
- Locks permit boats adjust to different water levels—a lake, for instance, may be hundreds of feet higher than a river.
The first elevator was made in:
- The Greek mathematician Archimedes developed the first elevator around 230 B.C. It was very inconvenient because it had to be pulled by people or animals. A safe, modern elevator was invented in 1853, and the electric elevator made its first appearance in 1889.
The first bicycles were powered by:
- The first bicycles, much like scooters, were powered by pushing the feet against the ground. Foot pedals were added in Scotland in 1839.
