The ozone layer is thinning or torn; We have all read from time to time that the glaciers at the poles melt and the water level rises. But did you know that the biggest share in these developments, which are life-threatening for all of us, belongs to a single man?
inventors, with inventions and discoveries that make human life easier They are generally well-intentioned people. Nikola Tesla, Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and many more inventors are names that we engrave in our memories with gratitude.
We wish we could commemorate every inventor well, but the greed of human beings to produce and earn money unfortunately this is not possible. Today we’re going to cover the dark life of Thomas Midgley, whose only two discoveries have caused irreversible damage to our Earth.
American mechanical engineer and chemist Thomas Midgley was born in Pennsylvania, USA in 1889. in a family of inventors came into the world.
Father Midgley, who focused on auto parts, and grandfather James Emerson, who invented the toothed saw, of course, at a young age. It had impressed Midgley.
University education and General Motors years
Midgley, the youngest member of the Midgley family, which is known as a respected family in America, was interested in machines and chemistry at a young age. After adding his undergraduate education at Cornell University to his successful education life, he became a world giant in 1916. General Motors He started working at (GM).
Delco became the place that changed his life
Midgley, especially was experimenting in the lead field and moved to Delco, a unit of GM, in order to carry out these experiments even more easily, and conducted experiments in the laboratories there.
Midgley, as a result of his work at Delco leaded gasoline discovered. Extremely profitable and efficient, but also harmful to humans and the environment, leaded gasoline has had a negative impact on workers, including Midgley.
Midgley pretended to be harmless even though he knew the harms of lead
Midgley was so impressed with the bullet that to save your lungs from lead poisoning took a vacation to Miami for a while, but the workers continued to work. Many workers died from lead poisoning during and after Midgley’s Miami vacation.
Lead poisoning had very negative consequences on people. So much so that even workers who do not lose their lives vision loss, sleep disturbance, kidney failure and cancer onset effects such as
A leaded gasoline ad from the Midgley era:
Even wishful
- Thomas Midgley shooting lead vapor live on air
Midgley, who was under intense pressure by the media and the state, tried to reduce the pressure on him. He held a press conference on October 30, 1924, and just like some statesmen in our country, after the Chernobyl disaster, “There is no problem in Black Sea tea, look, we are drinking tea on live broadcast” like he said, he put lead on his body on live broadcast and inhaled lead vapor into his lungs.
Even this show, which is very expensive in terms of human health, could not save Midgley and The next day the factories were sealed. Even after the factories were sealed, Midgley He was hospitalized for lead poisoning.
Crazy heart can’t get enough…
Continuing his work after his treatment at the hospital was completed, Midgley is one of his 100 patents. freon gasalso discovered.
Today, cold storage, air conditioner, refrigerator, deodorant The freon gas used in such products was a very harmful gas for our Earth, but its damage could be understood years later. Until 1985, harmful freon gases were used in many sectors and In 1985, when the damages were determined use has been terminated. The freon gases used today are a harmless derivative of the freon gas Midgley discovered.
For Midgley, the end of the road was a painful death.
By the science magazine New Scientist “one-man environmental disaster” and TIME magazine in 2010 with both leaded gasoline and freon gas “50 most harmful inventions in historyMidgley, who was listed twice, contracted polio in 1940 and was confined to bed for 4 years. He died in 1944 as a result of his throat being caught in a roller mechanism he designed to stand up and move.
what about you About Midgley what do you think? Do you think there was another human who did as much damage to our planet as Midgley? You can share your thoughts in the comments.
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