Communication through time

Question 1

Name the five oldest forms of human communication

Answer 1

Language, symbols, songs, art and dance

Question 2

Which early people in South Africa used hand signals while they were hunting?

Answer 2

San hunter-gatherers

Question 3

What is the most common form of communication?

Answer 3

Speaking words

Question 4

What is one of the most important ways of communicating through spoken language?

Answer 4

Stories

Question 5

In which two ways did the San people communicate through art?

Answer 5

Through painting and engravings

Question 6

What are engravings?

Answer 6

Pictures scratched onto rocks

Question 7

What were the San people’s paintings and engravings about?

Answer 7

Their religion

Question 8

What were Xhosa speaking peoples songs about?

Answer 8

Their history and things that were happening in the local area at the time

Question 9

Name three instruments that African people used

Answer 9

Uhadi
Umrhube
Mbira

Question 10

What was the earliest postal system?

Answer 10

The post stone

Question 11

Where was the stone found?

Answer 11

On Robben Island

Question 12

Who started a post service at the Cape?

Answer 12

Dutch and British settlers

Question 13

Who carried the male inland?

Answer 13

Farmers and runners

Question 14

In what year did the first mail coach leave Cape Town?

Answer 14

1843. It went as far as Swellendam and also carried passengers

Question 15

What was the first typewriter called?

Answer 15

A writing piano

Question 16

What was the problem with the early typewriter?

Answer 16

The keys kept jamming

Question 17

Which keyboard was invented to solve this problem?

Answer 17

The QWERTY keyboard

Question 18

Which machine allowed people to send messages along an electrical wire?

Answer 18

The Telegraph (invented in the 1800s)

Question 19

How were the messages sent via the Telegraph?

Answer 19

Messages were sent in Morse code

Question 20

What is Morse code?

Answer 20

A language that uses short and long signals

Question 21

Who invented the telephone?

Answer 21

Alexander Graham Bell

Question 22

When was the first telephone invented?

Answer 22

1876

Question 23

Who nearly invented the telephone (and why only nearly)?

Answer 23

Elisha Gray — he arrived a few hours after Bell to register his invention, but he was too late

Question 24

Who invented the radio?

Answer 24

Guglielmo Marconi

Question 25

In what year was the radio invented?

Answer 25

1895

Question 26

What was Marconi’s radio called?

Answer 26

The wireless

Question 27

What was one of the problems with Marconi’s radio

Answer 27

It could not be used for speech or music

Question 28

What did people use to capture their image before the camera?

Answer 28

Drawings or paintings

Question 29

Which camera gave everyone a chance to have a camera?

Answer 29

The Kodak camera

Question 30

Who invented the rolled film?

Answer 30

George Eastman

Question 31

In what year was the Kodak film company founded?

Answer 31

1888

Question 32

How were early photographs developed?

Answer 32

In a dark room

Question 33

When did commercial television stations begin?

Answer 33

In the 1930s

Question 34

What year did South Africa get television?

Answer 34

1976

Question 35

Who was responsible for designing a computer that was small enough everyone to use?

Answer 35

Bill Gates

Question 36

Who invented the Internet?

Answer 36

Bill Joy

Question 37

What year was the Internet launched?

Answer 37

1994

Question 38

What is another word for the Internet?

Answer 38

The World Wide Web

Question 39

Who made the first portable cell phone call?

Answer 39

Martin Cooper

Question 40

When was the first cell phone call made

Answer 40

3 April 1973