QUIZ: TIRES
• Ben’s mother gave her son the first name of Benjamin and the middle name of Franklin. After the Civil War, he bought out a New York rubber company. Numerous other rubber companies in the area provided such stiff competition that the business floundered. • The citizens of Akron, Ohio, convinced him to set up a new factory in their town. In Akron, he was the only rubber company west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the market was wide open. He established a licensing agreement with Charles Goodyear, and named his new business after himself.
by Samantha Weaver
• It was American playwright Wilson Mizner who made the following sage observation: "Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research." • If you went into a restaurant for breakfast in the 1930s and ordered "cluck and grunt," the server would know to bring you ham and eggs. • Irish mom Maria JonesElliott holds the distinction of having twins with the longest interval between the two births. In 2012, she went into labor almost four months before her due date. After two days of labor, one of the girls was born, but then the contractions stopped. While Amy, born weighing just 1 pound, 3 ounces, continued to improve in the neonatal intensive care unit, her sister Kate continued to grow in utero -for another 87 days. Against all odds, both twins survived and are now thriving toddlers. • If you're like 60 percent of American pet owners, your pet sleeps with you. © 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
• A recent study conducted by researchers at the Nara University of Education in Japan found that music affects people's generosity. Specifically, if you're listening to music you enjoy, you're likely to be more generous than if there were no music playing at all. In this scenario, the inverse is also true: If you're listening to a song you dislike, you're more likely to be stingy. • The next time you travel to Sweden for a vacation, try to catch a Kaninhoppning competition; you'll be treated to a spectacle of rabbit show jumping. • You might be surprised to learn that seven out of eight battle deaths suffered by all countries participating in World War II were suffered by the Russians and the Germans. *** Thought for the Day: "Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds -- all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have." -- Edward Everett Hale
• Benjamin had once seen a friend’s home burn to the ground in the middle of winter because the leather fire hoses used by firemen were frozen, cracked, and useless. The first product he began manufacturing was rubber fire hoses that wouldn’t crack. Then he added garden hoses. When Benjamin died in 1888 at the age of 46, his son took over. • Pneumatic tires (containing air instead of being solid rubber) had recently been invented, and they began to manufacture tires for bikes, cars, and planes. Benjamin’s company, named after him, became the largest rubber manufacturer in the world, most well-known for its automobile tires. What’s it called? (Answer at top of next page) QUIZ: DETACHABLE TIRES • In France in 1886, a family’s rubber manufacturing firm was failing, but the founder’s nephews, Edouard and Andre, were determined to save it. One day a bicyclist came in whose bike sported two recently invented pneumatic tires, which contain air instead of being solid rubber. Pneumatic tires gave a smooth ride, but they punctured. This bike had a flat, and the biker asked the brothers to fix it.
(Answer located 2 pages after this one)