The inventor invented the two most dangerous things in the world

Thomas J. Midgley is now considered one of the most dangerous inventors in history, because he invented leaded gasoline and CFC gas.

Midgley chemist lives in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, USA. While he was alive, he received many prestigious awards, but studies in recent decades show that the two compounds he invented for use in cars and refrigerators have destroyed the environment and the head. poisonous human.

Leaded gasoline

The impact of CFC on ozone layer.(Photo: tvtlp)

Midgley was born on May 18, 1889, graduated from Cornell University's mechanical engineering department in 1911. In 1916, he worked in the Delco Research Laboratory of General Mortor Group under the management of Mr. Charles Kettering. His job is to find ways to improve cars and focus on solving engine noise handling issues.

Engine noise was a common problem in early 20th century cars. When the engine was close to full load, it emitted loud noise that could damage the engine. After careful study, Mr. Midgley discovered that when adding tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline as a fuel additive, this slurry almost disappeared completely. He was even happier when he discovered leaded gasoline made cars speed up and engines more efficient.

With the support of General Motors Corporation, petroleum companies and automobile manufacturers, leaded gasoline was marketed on February 1, 1923 under the Ethyl brand. General Motors and Standard Oil formed the Ethyl Group to handle lead production and sales. Mr. Midgley became Group Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors.

The Ethyl Group never mentioned the word 'lead' when marketing TEL gasoline because everyone turned lead poison. This group emphasizes that TEL is safe, but at the group, there are many serious incidents related to this chemical.

In October 1924, at a laboratory factory in New Jersey, 5 workers were killed and 35 people had symptoms of lead poisoning: trembling, hallucinations . Mr. Midgely himself was poisoned by breathing in the vapor of TEL. and wash your hands in lead-based solution to prove the safety of the compound. He was forced to take a break from medical treatment. However, this accident did not stop him from supporting Ethyl. Instead, he made the group's point of view that workers who didn't take proper precautions should die and be poisoned.

The factory scandal has caused some states in the US to ban the use of TEL. However, everything then changed. Under heavy pressure from the corporation, the Federal Bureau of Mining published research confirming TEL safety. This research and aggressive marketing campaign TEL has considered this product to be selected. In the following decades, the lead exposure process caused a series of health problems, especially among children. One study suggests that increased lead exposure may have led to increased crime in the mid-20th century.

Starting in the 1970s, leaded gasoline was phased out, and by 2017, it was only produced in parts of the world. However, lead poisoning still exists in areas where leaded gasoline vehicles are still prevalent.

CFC gas

Mr. Thomas Midgley.

Midgley's next troubling invention was chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC for short. CFCs were developed to solve a long-standing problem with early refrigerators: they are very dangerous.

Mr. Tom Jackson, author of 'Chilled: How Refrigeration Changed the World and Might Do So Again' , explains: ' The best early refrigerants were ether or ammonia and they were all flammable. '

An industrial-scale refrigerator displayed at the Chicago World Fair in 1893 caught fire and exploded, killing 17 firefighters. Household refrigerators manufactured for about 30 years later use sulfur dioxide, although not flammable but very toxic. This gas leak can kill an entire family while they are sleeping.

At that time, Frigidaire's refrigerator manufacturing division of General Motors was in a loss for many years. Midgley and a team of scientists set out to search for a non-toxic and non-flammable refrigerant.

In 1930, they found a solution in dichlorodifluoromethane, which they sold under the name freon-12 . This is the world's first CFC. To prove his safety, Mr. Midgley took the gas and blew out a candle.

Freon became popular and used in the manufacture of refrigerators, coolers and aerosols. What Mr. Midgely does not know is that CFC weakens the Earth's ozone layer , which protects us from ultraviolet rays and other forms of radiation. What's worse, CFC is a greenhouse gas, causing global warming and climate change at a much faster rate than CO2.

Although CFC gases such as freon-12 were banned or strictly restricted from the 1987 Montreal Convention, they were still suspended in the atmosphere. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CFC has a lifetime of up to 140 years in the atmosphere.

Ethyl brand gasoline on an old gasoline pump hose.(Photo: Wikipedia).

When finding these substances, Mr. Midgley was praised and won every prestigious award in his career. He was awarded the Willard Gibbs Medal, the Nichols Medal, the Priestly Medal and the Perkin Medal. In addition to leaded gasoline and freon, Midgley also holds about 170 other patents. It was not until the recent decades that the disastrous consequences of his inventions were known.

Mr. Midgely is not the only person responsible for all environmental problems caused by leaded gasoline and CFC. Enterprises at that time often rejected the potential effect of air pollutants. They underestimate them or think it is a minor problem. In addition, there are no significant regulations on potential contaminants.

In the case of CFC, Midgley argued they were less harmful than refrigerators that were waiting to explode. Mr. Jackson said : 'I think it would be unfair to criticize Mr. Midgley for the CFC. This is not a good solution for a commercial problem but one that Mr. Midgley and others think is safe. '

On the other hand, according to Mr. Jackson, since the 1920s, people were aware of the toxic effects of lead when Midgley developed lead fuel so he was definitely aware of the health damage that lead caused. continues to make leaded gasoline.

In 1940, Mr. Midgley became infected with the polio virus and became paralyzed. He devised a system of ropes and pulleys to help him move, get out of bed. Ironically, this rope and pulley initiative caused him to be strangled to death on November 2, 1944.