Sunday, August 30, 2009

Inventors killed by their inventions

Irony defined. List of Inventors Killed by their own Inventions, including:

Medical
Marie Curie (1867 – 1934) invented the process to isolate radium after co-discovering the radioactive elements radium and polonium. She died of aplastic anemia as a result of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation emanating from her research materials. Radiation's dangers were not yet well understood at the time.

Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889 – 1944), the inventor of leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons, contracted a severe case of polio, possibly in part due to an immune system weakened by his exposure to lead and other chemicals in the course of his chemistry career. This illness might well have killed him were it not for the pulley-operated system he designed to help move his debilitated body into and out of bed, which entangled him in one of its cords and strangled him to death at the age of 55.

From wikipedia via reddit.

1 comment:

Sandy said...

Really very sad, inventions should not like this that they kill their inventors. We should avoid this. I am also looking for some information regarding the market of women inventors and inventions

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