Unutterably Silly Quiz

[issybird]

Something to do with cars? Planes?

[Shayne Parkinson]

To do with both.

[issybird]

Did he invent something found in a car?

[Shayne Parkinson]

No, it's broader than that, and less directly linked to cars. Wow, I hope that sentence is more helpful than it looks!

[issybird]

Something to do with navigation?

ETA: I'm going to have to bail (and not in the sense of boats). Getting on toward midnight in the eastern USA. Someone to the west needs to pick up the slack. Or way east!

[Shayne Parkinson]

Not navigation.

Let's see how the next shift does.

[Shayne Parkinson]

Originally Posted by Shayne Parkinson

To be perfectly frank,
No one's ever heard of you,
Frank.

(From a song of some years back, about this gentleman.)

Poor Frank Holmes, languishing in obscurity. Let's see if we can rescue him without resorting to search engines.

You may not have heard of Frank, but you've almost certainly made use of something that he was heavily involved in the development of. What's his claim to fame?

Unless someone just knows the answer (always a possibility with this crowd), we'll get there via question-and-answer. So let the questions and answers commence!

Major points established so far:
- Born in New Zealand, but his most significant work was in the Northern Hemisphere, in the 1920s
- There's a connection with transportation

[dreams]

I was going to say something to do with films/movies, but that is out.

Transportation? I'd guess covered roads (asphalt/concrete), but you said less connected to cars. Tires, but those are very connected with cars.....

Trains? Something with train tracks? Gesh... I'm just wildly guess here.

Oh, maybe something to do with shape/aerodynamics?

[Shayne Parkinson]

There's a strong connection with transportation, but the answer is broader than that.

Roads, yes. Train tracks, not so much.

No, not to do with shape/aerodynamics.

Wild guesses are good. I think you're closing in on the answer, actually.

[dreams]

Roads? Maybe with the naming of roads? Or with the design of where they go? Naming them for the areas within each state?

[Shayne Parkinson]

No, now I think I've led you down the wrong road.

The thing that Frank was involved with has a large influence on the lives of most of us today. Part of that influence is related to transport, but it's also connected with other things. Lots of other things.

Small clue: it's not a specific invention.

Slightly bigger clue:

Spoiler:

Frank had a strong link to a particular part of the world (not counting New Zealand). This is related to the answer.

[dreams]

Geesh, like that helped. I was totally fixated on thinking about the roads thing.

So, still something with transport that we are largely influenced by today? Well, gas has something to do with transport (planes and cars) and we use it to cook and heat. But, didn't it already exist as useful then? Or was that coal/steam? Then again, "it's also connected with other things."

[Shayne Parkinson]

Originally Posted by dreams

Geesh, like that helped. I was totally fixated on thinking about the roads thing.

So, still something with transport that we are largely influenced by today? Well, gas has something to do with transport (planes and cars) and we use it to cook and heat. But, didn't it already exist as useful then? Or was that coal/steam? Then again, "it's also connected with other things."

Yes, gas/oil/petroleum! Specifically, oil from the Middle East, when not much notice was being taken of this potential in the West.

To oversimplify a rather complicated story: geologist and mining engineer Frank Holmes had a major role in the early development of the Arabian oil industry, and was sometimes known as Abu Taft, "Father of Oil". In 1918 he wrote to his wife, "I personally believe that there will be developed an immense oil field running from Kuwait right down the mainland coast [of eastern Arabia]". In the 1920s he returned to survey the area. He didn't get on with the relevant British authorities, so he turned to American oil interests - first Gulf Oil, then Standard Oil. The rest, as they say, is history.

There's a section on Frank here: http://www.geoexpro.com/history/the_emerge/


Congratulations, Dreams! You're up next.

[Stitchawl]

I'm coming into this late so I get the benefit of all the clues that came before...

Is he the guy that had a lot to do with starting to sell oil internationally? Setting up the original cartels or something? I have this vague memory from an Economics class in grad school where the prof was talking about something like this, but I really can't narrow it down.

EDIT:Opps! missed by a minute! LOL!

Stitchawl

[dreams]

Yay!!

I'll give this a try, but I am not really good at picking something.

What was the name of the book that was an early example of the use of a female name for a storm?