“He was looking at the sky happy and sad!
Delirious with joy ’cause it drove him mad!
She was riding in the wheels made by him!
He forgot though to install the brake in a whim!”
Most researchers or inventors want to invent to discover something by which they will be remembered for ages! Some though are plagued by bad discoveries and may not want the world to remember them by those!
One is Alfred Nobel who discovered Dynamite but made amends by pledging his wealth to make the coveted Nobel Prize!
Another such inventor may want the world to forget he invented this or discovered not only one but two inventions which are now destroying us! The first one destroyed the environment while the second one almost destroyed the planet!
Read on!
One fine day ages back, inventor Thomas Midgley Jr. poured a lead additive over his hands and then proceeded to inhale its fumes for about a minute!
Big mistake!
Midgley was this prolific inventor! Super intelligent and a genius but unfortunately he could not predict how his inventions would cause more harm than good!
Very soon Midgley needed medical treatment for chemical inhalation and respiratory issues!
Basically though his intention behind the invention was really good!
One of the biggest issues plaguing the automobile industry was the issue of knocking. So engine knocking, or tiny explosions in car engines used to happen due to the low quality of gasoline that resulted in an annoying sound and potential damage.
Under the direction of Charles Kettering, another influential American inventor and head of research at GM, Midgley worked his way through thousands of substances — including arsenic, sulfur and silicon — in a quest to find one that reduced knocking when added to gasoline.
He eventually landed on tetraethyl lead, a lead derivative that was marketed simply as Ethyl.
It did solve the problem of knocking but it knocked the lungs of those who inhaled it for long especially children!
In spite of the toxic effects, it was banned only slowly and by that time the harm was done. In fact only in 2021 Algeria the last country to use lead banned it! The damage this has done to the environment is yet to be accounted completely…
Just when you thought it cannot get any worse, his next invention did!
Here also the invention was to make things better! Midgley was asked to find a solution to a problem: the need to replace the noxious and flammable gases used in refrigeration and air conditioning.
He found that CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, were an ideal substitute and harmless to humans. Of course everyone now knows about the harmful effects of the gases to the ozone! They turned out to be deadly to the ozone in the atmosphere, which blocks dangerous ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancers and other health problems, as well as harming plants and animals.
One hundred years after that stunt before the press in 1924, the planet is still recovering from the ill effects of both of Midgley’s inventions. The ozone layer will need another four decades to heal fully, and because leaded gasoline was still sold in parts of the world until 2021, many continue to live with the long-term effects of lead poisoning. So remember that when you feel bad that you do not invent or discover something! It is better to not discover something so dangerous! That of course does not take away the fact that Midgley is a great discoverer of two innovative things! Two reminds me of the two sons of Sivakumar, one of them who is the birthday celebrity Karthik Sivakumar known as Karthi!
Now turn off or reduce that non CFC AC and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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