Final Jeopardy: 19th Century Inventors (2-15-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (2/15/2019) in the category “19th Century Inventors” was:

He spent his life improving a plant-based substance he described as a “vegetable leather” or “elastic metal”

4x champ Eric R. Backes, an attorney from Round Rock, TX, went over the $100K mark yesterday by $5,602. He’s going for the elusive fifth win today and his challengers are: Amanda Holm, a project manager from Livonia, MI; and Mark Smith, an environmental scientist from Salem, OH.

Round 1 Categories: The 2019 World Almanac – Word Puzzles – A Matter of Wife & Death – Body Parts in Latin – It Was So Funny – You Had to Be There

Eric found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Body Parts in Latin” under the $600 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He already had a big lead with $7,000, $5,400 more than Amanda in second place. He bet $2,500 and he was RIGHT.

Gingiva show

WHAT ARE THE GUMS?

Eric finished in the lead with $10,300. Amanda was second with $3,400 and Mark was last with $200.

Round 2 Categories: Presidents’ Days – Homophonic Pairs – Franz Kafka – That Song Sounds Familiar – Liquids – What “a” City

Mark found the first Daily Double in “What ‘A’ City” under the $1,600 clue on the 7th pick. He was in third place with $1,800 now, $10,900 less than Eric’s lead. He bet the $2,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.

Today a capital and once part of the Byzantine Empire, it fell to Persians, Romans & Turks. show

WHAT IS ANKARA?

Amanda found the last Daily Double in “Franz Kafka” under the $1,600 clue. There were 5 clues worth $7,600 left after it. In second place with $11,000, she had $7,700 less than Eric’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.

“In the Empty Courtroom” is a chapter in this novel in which Joseph K. is inexplicably arrested. show

WHAT IS “THE TRIAL”?

Eric finished in the lead with $20,300. Amanda was next with $17,200 and Mark was in third place with $6,200.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS CHARLES GOODYEAR?

The Charles Goodyear Story on Good Year Corporate’s site relates how Charles Goodyear’s experiments with rubber started out in a jail cell and led to the accidental discovery of weatherproof rubber. “Goodyear saw rubber as what we know it is today: the first and most versatile of the modern ‘plastics.’ He perceived in it a ‘vegetable leather’ that defied the elements, an ‘elastic metal,’ a wood substitute that could be shaped in molds.”

From 2005: WOULDN’T IT BE RUBBERY ($400) Although his discovery of rubber vulcanization made millions for others, he died deeply in debt

Mark thought it was George Washington Carver. He lost his $200 bet, leaving him with $6,000.

Amanda went with Dupont. That cost her $4,000. She finished with $13,200.

Eric had Carver, too. He lost $14,101. That left him with $6,199 and made Amanda Holm the new Jeopardy! champ.

2 triple stumpers from the last round:

PRESIDENTS’ DAYS ($1600) A 2009 Illinois resolution made every February 6 this 20th century President’s Day

FRANZ KAFKA ($2000) Kafka’s last novel is called this, like the one on Hradcany Hill that overlooks his hometown

2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “World Landmarks”

Completed in 1884, the Washington Monument became the tallest manmade structure but 4 years later was surpassed by this. show

WHAT IS THE EIFFEL TOWER?

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