10 Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions


#9 Thomas Midgley Jr

Thomas Midgley Jr. was a noted American mechanical engineer and chemist. Even though he was granted over a hundred patents for his inventions, his legacy hid behind the negative environmental impacts of some of his inventions including Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) and leaded petrol.

In an attempt to prove the fuel he invented was safe, Midgley once poured leaded petrol all over his hands and also sniffed it from a flask for 60 seconds during a press conference.  He eventually suffered lead poisoning and was left disabled in his bed due to Polio. This forced him to invent an elaborate system of pulleys and ropes in order to lift himself from bed. Unfortunately, on November 2, 1944, he died due to suffocation after getting entangled in the ropes of his own invention. Needless to say, both of his inventions played their parts in his death.