Name one example of an American innovation.

Why this is the answer

The official list names seven American innovations: the light bulb, the automobile (cars and the internal combustion engine), skyscrapers, the airplane, the assembly line, the landing on the moon and the integrated circuit. Any one of them is correct. A few of the seven come with especially clear stories in federal sources. The light bulb is tied to Thomas Edison. On January 27, 1880, he received patent number 223,898 for an improved electric lamp. Electric lamps already existed; what Edison's design changes and materials, such as a carbon filament, produced was a lamp that was reliable, safe and practical. It paved the way for electric light in ordinary homes. His New Jersey laboratories turned out 1,093 patented inventions, among them the phonograph and the moving picture camera, and helped carry the country out of the gaslight era and into the electric age. The moon landing grew out of the Cold War. After the Soviet Union sent the first satellite into space in 1957, the two countries raced to send rockets farther. In 1969 the United States became the first country to land a person on the moon. It is the innovation the USCIS study guide itself describes, so it is an easy one to explain. The automobile shows how far an innovation can reach. The National Archives notes that after the interstate highway law of 1956, community development in America was built around the car, and suburbs spread in the decades that followed. In the interview, choose one of the seven and use the words on the list. USCIS says it knows there may be other correct answers, but it encourages applicants to answer with the ones it provides. Famous inventions that are not on the list, such as the printing press or the steam engine, are not among the accepted answers. If you only learn one, the light bulb is short, easy to pronounce and hard to mishear.