10 Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions


Bangalore: A new invention always comes with a new set of hazards. Usually, the people who became prey to these hazards are none other than the inventors itself.

“In the pursuit of greater knowledge, there is risk to life and limb.” Read below the stories of 10 ill fated inventors including the Nobel Prize winner Madame Marie Curie and great magician Houdini, who were killed by their own inventions.

#10 Marie Curie

Marie Curie was also, sadly, the victim of her own invention or perhaps experimentation. She is the only person on earth to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. One in Physics, which she won jointly with her husband, and another in Chemistry. But her vast researches on the field of radioactivity came at the cost of her life.

Curie established the theory of Radioactivity and also discovered the elements Polonium and Radium. Radon, the gas emitted by radium was used by Curie and others for treating the injured soldiers in WW1, without knowing the deadly side effects. She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket and stored them in her desk drawer.

Eventually, she discovered the fatal effects of radioactivity as her health slowly deteriorated. She died on July 4, 1934, of a condition called aplastic anemia, where bone marrow stops producing new Red Blood Cells due to radiation exposure.