The Final Jeopardy question (10/18/2011), in the category Foreign-Born Inventors, was:

“His 1922 New York Times obituary mentions that his Patent No. 174,465 has been called the most valuable patent ever issued“

New champion Lanny Timan, who defeated last Friday’s champ Joe Koster yesterday, was back today, facing new challengers, Liz Greenwood and Ray Crosby. Alex described Lanny to the new contestants as “steady and solid.”

Things started out a little sketchy for Lanny and Ray in the Jeopardy round, but Ray picked up his game, and Liz seemed to be having a problem buzzing in. Ray had a great lead but lost $2,800 on the Daily Double, the very last clue: The World Court prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant against this African country’s President Al-Bashir.

He was still in the lead with $4,000 going into Double Jeopardy. Liz had $2,800 and Lanny had $1,200.

Ray promptly lost that lead when he got the first Daily Double and chose to go for broke: The name of this large port city on Western Europe’s Schelde River literally means “at the wharf”

Lanny got the second Daily Double but only wagered half of $3,200: “The House of the Dead” is a fictionalized version of this 19th c. Russian’s prison experiences. Well, at least it only cost her half.

Ray came back strong and had a $200 lead, then he blew the very last clue again! He lost $2,000, ending up with $6,000.

Liz went into Final Jeopardy in the lead with $7,800 and Lanny had $6,800.

All 3 of them, amazingly, got Final Jeopardy wrong.

WHO IS ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL?

Telephone inventor Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847. He migrated with his family to Canada in 1870 and moved to Boston, MA. in 1871. Several years later while working on developing a harmonic telegraph, he became interested in the idea of transmitting the human voice over wires. Through his partnership with Thomas Watson, the two men made the idea a reality. Learn more about Alexander Graham Bell’s life on Biography.com

Joe wrote down “Zales” because he thought it had something to do with diamonds. Wiliam Zale, co-founder of Zale Corporation, was born in Russia but did he invent anything? We don’t know.

Lanny wrote down “S. Morse” who was born in Massachusetts and Liz picked “Thomas Edison” who was born in Ohio.

But that’s not half as amazing as none of them knowing who plays Lt. Anita Van Buren on Law & Order.

Big bettor Joe got cleaned out of everything but $2.

Lanny bet $5,201 winding up with $1,599 and Liz bet $6,001 bringing her down to $1,599 and a tie with Lanny. LOL. They both had to put that extra dollar in there, ya know.

Lanny’s two-day total is $17,600; Liz has her $1,599 and they will both be back tomorrow to meet one new contestant. Predictions, anyone?