The Man Who Poisoned the World
Thomas Midgley was an inventor and chemical engineer who lived during the age of rapid industrialization in the growing U.S. It was period that emphasized manufacturing quickly and cheaply over safety, and this lead to grave mistakes that reverberate into the lives of people today. Thomas Midgley was part of this movement of industrialization and manufacturing, and he is most well known for his implementation of the TEL, or tetraethyl lead, in gasoline and his creation of the first chlorofluorocarbon, or Freon.
Thomas Midgley was born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania in 1889. After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering, he went to work for General Motors. His job was to find a solution to the issue of “knocking” in car engines. Knocking occurs when the combustion of fuel in the cylinder does not start off correctly in response to ignition. Midgley discovered a method that could eliminate the issue of knocking in automobiles: adding TEL to the gasoline. Of course, TEL includes lead, a chemical that has been proven to cause damage to the brain and other organs. At the time, however, the effects of lead were not as well known, and so GM was able to capitalize on the sale of their new gasoline. It was distributed all over the country, and when people drove into gas stations, they were often given the choice of “regular” or “ethyl”. Of course, leaded gasoline was eventually banned in the US, but it is still sold and used in other countries. TEL is a producer of lead pollution, which, when inhaled, can lead to neurotoxic effects in humans and animals. However, Midgley’s popularization of TEL was arguably not his most destructive invention.
After TEL, Midgley moved to the refrigeration department of GM, where he was commissioned to find an alternative to ammonia and propane in early air conditioning and refrigerant systems. Midgley quickly synthesized a compound that could replace these chemicals, and it was called dichlorodifluoromethane, the very first CFC. CFC’s are hydrocarbons that are highly volatile, and, as it happens, very damaging to the Earth’s ozone layer. After 60 years, the international community finally realized their mistake and many nations signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987, an agreement to phase out usage of several chemicals, CFC’s included. However, the damage had been done. The ozone layer was and still is severely weakened, and with the current levels of greenhouse gases and solar radiation, the future of our species is bleak.
Midgley apparently believed his inventions were safe for the public. Later in his life, Midgley developed polio and lost the use of his legs. He developed a contraption for helping him get out of bed, but this contraption was what lead to his death. He was strangled by the contraption when using it and died of asphyxiation. Midgley’s legacy is tarnished by the effects of his inventions, and an environmental historian named J.R. McNeill accredits him as having “more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history”.
http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/10/03/the-worst-inventor-in-history/
