Category: Brain Teasers

Trivia: What contributed to the decline of the number of milkmen in the U.S.?

Home refrigeration
Laws banning milk delivery
Invention of Coca-Cola
Rising price of uniforms

Correct Answer: Home refrigeration

So why is this answer correct? : In the late 19th century, many Americans relied on milkmen to deliver fresh dairy to their homes. Since refrigerators did not exist to keep milk cool, people needed daily deliveries. Once home refrigeration and cars became common in the 1940s, people could drive to the supermarket to buy and store milk at home, so milkmen were no longer essential.

Trivia: Where did 19th-century resurrectionists do their work?

Hospitals
Railroads
Cemeteries
Casinos

Correct Answer: Cemeteries

So why is this answer correct? : In the 19th century, doctors hoping to study human anatomy would illicitly purchase and dissect bodies stolen from cemeteries by resurrectionists. Also known as body snatchers, resurrectionists would raid graves by night and earn a decent living on the black market until legal reforms increased the availability of cadavers and rendered their jobs obsolete.

Trivia: “Hello girls” was a nickname for women in what profession?

Plague doctor
Switchboard operator
Court jester
Lamplighter

Correct Answer: Switchboard operator

So why is this answer correct? : Before phones could connect directly, people relied on switchboard operators to route their calls to the right destination. These operators were typically women, and the calm, kind way they answered the phone earned them the nickname “hello girls.” As technology advanced, switchboard operator jobs eventually became obsolete, and the “hello girls” gradually disappeared.

Trivia: Horse-drawn blades and specialized tongs were tools of which profession?

Milkman
Ice cutter
Typewriter repairman
Scribe

Correct Answer: Ice cutter

So why is this answer correct? : In the days before refrigerators became a domestic staple, people would need ice delivered to their homes to keep food cold. Workers known as ice cutters would use various tools, such as saws and horse-drawn blades, to collect ice from frozen rivers, which would then be delivered by truck to homes and businesses. After the advent of refrigerators, ice cutters became obsolete.

Trivia: NASA workers who made mathematical calculations were called what?

Bookkeepers
Prospectors
Spelunkers
Computers

Correct Answer: Computers

So why is this answer correct? : From the 1940s to 1960s, NASA relied on human “computers” to perform calculations with reliable accuracy. NASA’s computers were primarily women and often African American, and were tasked with determining the positions and trajectories of spacecraft. Human computers were essential to NASA missions such as the 1969 moon landing. The 2016 movie “Hidden Figures” is about NASA computers Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson.

Trivia: Which appliance replaced the group of workers known as “knocker-uppers”?

Alarm clock
Microwave
Television
Lithium battery

Correct Answer: Alarm clock

So why is this answer correct? : Starting in the Industrial Revolution, shift workers — especially in England — relied on knocker-uppers to get them up in time for work. Knocker-uppers would use long poles to tap on the windows of sleeping workers to let them know it was time to get up for their shift. By the 1970s, the convenience of alarm clocks proved too alluring to resist, and knocker-uppers became obsolete.

Trivia: Which company employed a team of “gameplay counselors” from 1987 to 2005?

Hasbro
General Motors
Nintendo
McDonald’s

Correct Answer: Nintendo

So why is this answer correct? : Before the internet made game walk-throughs instantly available, gamers stumped by a puzzle or stuck on a challenging boss needed help from trained professionals. From 1987 to 2005, Nintendo employed a team of gameplay counselors who manned the Nintendo Power Hotline, a phone number players could call to chat with gaming experts who could offer guidance when they got stuck.

Trivia: According to legend, the Pied Piper practiced what now-obsolete job?

Trolley conductor
Corset maker
Rat catcher
Telegraph operator

Correct Answer: Rat catcher

So why is this answer correct? : Beginning in medieval times, towns with rat infestations would hire rat catchers to get their rodent problem under control. Though rat catchers were primarily replaced by more generalized pest-control workers in the early 20th century, their legacy lives on in the tale of the Pied Piper, a rat catcher who kidnapped all the children in a German town after the villagers refused to pay him for his services.

Trivia: Western Union began as one of the largest employers in what profession?

Typewriter repairman
Charioteer
Chimney sweep
Telegraph operator

Correct Answer: Telegraph operator

So why is this answer correct? : Though it’s now a financial services company, Western Union was originally founded in 1851 as a telegraph company. In 1861, it built the first transcontinental telegraph line, and after absorbing more than 500 competing companies, Western Union became one of the world’s largest employers of telegraph operators. When the telephone rendered telegraphs obsolete, the company changed its business model.

Trivia: People who served drinks at soda fountains were called what?

Soda dingbats
Soda doofuses
Soda rascals
Soda jerks

Correct Answer: Soda jerks

So why is this answer correct? : In the 1930s and ’40s, soda fountains were manned by soda jerks, named for how they pulled the soda spigots. In addition to pouring beverages, soda jerks were known for entertaining customers with their unique slang. For instance, water was called “Hudson River ale,” and milk was known as “bovine extract.” As fast-food chains replaced local soda fountains, soda jerks became a thing of the past, as did their unique lingo.