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If you think Elon Musk’s tough interview question for job candidates is demanding, wait until you see the employment exam designed by Thomas Edison. When he wasn’t inventing groundbreaking devices like the light bulb or phonograph, or clashing with Nikola Tesla, Edison was busy crafting a trivia test of mind-boggling difficulty.
As Smithsonian reveals, the 146-question exam was created to filter out applicants who would not be a good fit for his factory, which was a sought-after employer in 1921. A college degree didn’t impress Edison much—he once famously said, "Men who have gone to college I find to be amazingly ignorant"—so he devised a more practical way to assess the knowledge of potential employees.
The test, however, might have been too efficient. Out of 718 candidates who attempted it, only 57 achieved a passing score of 70 percent, and only 32 earned Edison’s ideal score of 90 percent or higher. This left many applicants, who considered themselves well-educated, frustrated. One unsuccessful applicant, Charles Hansen, shared the questions he remembered with The New York Times in 1921, calling the test a “silly examination.” Another applicant described it as “not a Tom Edison but a Tom Foolery test” [PDF].
When the test questions became public, reporters started polling people to see how well they'd perform on Edison’s exam. Albert Einstein allegedly failed (he couldn’t recall the speed of sound), as did Edison’s youngest son, who was an MIT student at the time.
If you’re up for a challenge, try answering a few of the questions below, then scroll down to view the answers from The New York Times. (Note: The answers listed were correct in 1921, but some may have changed since then. A few questions and answers have been edited for clarity.)
- Which city in the U.S. is famous for making laundry machines?
- Besides Australia, in which other country can kangaroos be found?
- From which region do we get prunes?
- Can you name a large inland body of water with no outlet?
- Which state is the largest? And which is second?
- Who is a famous violin maker?
- What are the ingredients in the best white paint?
- What causes the tides?
- What brings about the change of seasons?
- Who discovered the South Pole?
- How fast does light travel per foot per second?
- What type of wood are axe handles made from?
- Which cereal is consumed worldwide?
- Can you name three potent poisons?
- Why is the Fahrenheit thermometer named after Fahrenheit?
Stuck on a question? Scroll down to find the answers.
Thomas Edison | George Rinhart/GettyImages- Chicago
- New Guinea
- Prunes are cultivated in the Santa Clara Valley and other regions.
- The Great Salt Lake, for instance
- Texas, followed by California (Note: Today it’s Alaska, then Texas)
- Stradivarius
- Linseed oil, with a small amount of turpentine and liquid dryer, combined with a blend of white lead and zinc oxide
- The moon’s gravitational pull affects the ocean strongly due to its fluidity, and weakly affects the Earth because of its relative rigidity.
- The tilt of the Earth’s axis relative to the plane of the ecliptic. This tilt causes the Sun’s rays to strike at different angles as the Earth orbits, resulting in temperature variations.
- Roald Amundsen, followed by Robert Falcon Scott
- Approximately 186,700 miles per second in a vacuum, and slightly slower through the atmosphere.
- Ash is commonly used in the East, while hickory is favored in the West.
- No cereal is universally used across all regions. Wheat is the most widespread, followed by rice and corn.
- Cyanide of potassium, strychnine, and arsenic are all correct answers.
- The thermometer is named after Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, the German physicist who invented it.
For the complete list of questions and answers, click here.
