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Inventions
Quiz: Did an Irish person invent this?
We can claim a fair number of inventions across the world.
ALL GOING TO plan, there’ll be a welcome moment in the future when you get a Covid vaccine jabbed into your arm.
And you’ll have an Irishman to thank: Francis Rynd, inventor of the hypodermic needle.
He performed the first procedure using one in 1844 at The Meath hospital in Dublin.
He was not the first to use a syringe, and others went on to refine the technology, but Rynd’s invention is credited with laying the groundwork for this.
But it’s not just the syringe. Ireland – with its diaspora doing some heavy lifting here – can lay claim to a number of other inventions.
Test your knowledge on them below.
Irish-born London-based aeronautics professor Patrick Hemsley designed the Concorde.
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True
False
Dubliner Robert Mallet developed seismology, the study of seismic waves in the earth's crust.
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True
False
The modern method of making rashers was perfected and patented by Waterford man Henry Denny.
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True
False
This gentleman, Samuel Haughton from Carlow, developed a commonly used method of capital punishment by hanging, known as the standard drop, which aimed to minimise the chance of any prolonged suffering.
True
False
Don't be fooled by the name: Otto Frederick Rohwedde was originally from Ireland. He invented the sliced pan while living in Iowa.
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True
False
The Rhode Island Red chicken was developed through selective breeding on Rhode Island off Cork.
True
False
An Irish man, John Philip Holland, designed the first commercially successful submarine.
True
False
Snooker has its origins in Am Liathróid Tábla, a game with slightly different rules but still played in Connemara.
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True
False
Modern chemistry.
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True
False
The humble cream cracker.
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True
False
You scored out of !
You are Sudocrem, invented by Thomas Smith.
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You are the nickel-zinc battery, invented by James Drumm
You scored out of !
You are the three-point linkage, invented by Harry Ferguson
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You scored out of !
You are all the people who tried and failed to invent a viable submarine before John Philip Holland
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