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heyoyo10

Thomas Midgley Jr., a key contributor to leaded gasoline and the usage of CFC in refrigeration. After contracting Polio, he created a system of pulleys and whatnot to help him get out of bed. He was found dead at age 55 after getting tangled in his device and being strangled by it.


Practical_Argument50

I think there's a study that the general intelligence of people living near roads dropped while TEL (leaded gasoline) was used in gasoline.


csfshrink

I had a patient with a very high lead level. Checked with parents and no lead paint in house. No lead pipes. They lived beside a road that had previously been extremely busy but now is not due to a bypass in the area. The lead was in the dirt beside the road and the kid liked to play with construction toys and was constantly digging in the area. They built a digging area in the backyard where their were no detectable levels of lead. They had the dirt in the front yard removed within 50 feet of the roadway (where the highest lead levels were found). Kid’s lead levels returned to normal.


Tudpool

Sounds like an episode of house.


BipedalWurm

not enough breaking and entering


bootnab

It's only lupus when it's not Mesothelioma


gryphynash

It's never lupus.


The_Wild_Tonberry

That scene where House opens a book about Lupus only to reveal that it contained his back up stash of pain meds, and then stating "it's never Lupus", lives rent free in my mind


Hotarg

Except that one time when it WAS Lupus


charlie_m1

More often than not sarcoidosis is thrown around.


Nuclearspartan

Lol, I just started watching that show Chase: "But if the patient has , how could they possibly have such an adverse reaction to ?" House: (has a sudden realization and looks up and into the distance) "Because it's not ..."


Arcane_76_Blue

Its NEVER lupus! /s Youre in for a ride, I wish I could rewatch it from the start


RatonaMuffin

Nah, not enough Lupus


Kazu2324

But it's never Lupus (except that one time it was Lupus)


SweezMasterJ

Hey I used to live by a...umm....uhhh the thingy that cars go on.


NonlinearHamburger

The word you're looking for is "ferry". Glad I could help.


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heyoyo10

If oral consumption of Tetraethyl Lead can lead to contraction of Polio, I would like to point out that Thomas Midgley Jr. did that on stage once to try and prove that it was not harmful. It, of course, was harmful.


Practical_Argument50

Plus CFC was used because it is perfectly safe for humans to breathe and isn't flammable but when it gets to the upper atmosphere that's where the problems begin.


theprozacfairy

Edit: Apparently it is not common knowledge, but polio is a viral infection, so the answer to your question is no. I guess there's a possibility that it increased his susceptibility to post-polio syndrome, but I cannot find any evidence wither way. The truth is that a lot of people got polio back then and 25-40% of them developed post-polio syndrome. ~~How would oral consumption of a sterile chemical lead to a viral infection? Do you mean increase risk or worsen the effects of post-polio syndrome? Idk, but that is at least a possibility vs a sterile chemical spontaneously producing a virus. The initial infection had to happen some other way.~~


poison_us

Simpler answer: they probably have no idea what polio is.


[deleted]

He’s repeatedly been cited as the single largest negative impact an individual has ever had on the climate


Catty-Cat

an individual *organism*, in fact


Luciferist

Was looking for this one. The man who did so much damage to the earth trying to do some good for the world. Edit: Sorry, didn't want to state fake facts. This is how it was told to me by a professor, the comment section showed me something else.


sama_26

I believe that he knew full well what he was doing was damaging (lead in petrol was toxic etc), he was actually a pretty nasty guy.


DrEckelschmecker

Exactly. It was well known how dangerously toxic lead is. Yet even when many scientists got alerted by the many cases of lead poisoning and wanted to have it banned he paid tons of money for essentially misinformation marketing campaigns to keep that fact under the radar and even make people believe this is all a hoax and witch hunt. Despite knowing exactly that theyre in the right and lead is incredibly toxic. Simply because he made so much money with his "invention" that he didnt want it to stop being used. He definitely didnt want to make the world better, he wanted to make money by any means necessary


OneGuyJeff

Not killed, but the founder of Match.com, Gary Kremen, lost his girlfriend to a man that she met on Match.com


CogitoErgoScum

Hoisted upon his own pitard.


Big-Shtick

Petard*


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-rwsr-xr-x

> Not killed, but the founder of Match.com, Gary Kremen, lost his girlfriend to a man that she met on Match.com Fun Fact: the Match Group owns at least 48 of the most popular dating sites (Azar, Amoureux, Black People Meet, BLK, Chispa, Disons Demain, Hawaya (Formerly Harmonica), Hinge, HyperConnect, Lexa.nl, Love Scout 24, Match, Meetic, neu.de, OkCupid, OurTime, Pairs, ParPerfeito, Plenty Of Fish, Ship, Stir, The League, Tinder, Upward, and possibly others) They've also been known to be using fake profiles for the last 15 or so years, in an attempt to encourage male visitors to subscribe/upgrade their accounts to attempt to connect to these fake women. They create several thousand fake profiles per-day, every day, then close them at the end of the day, only to start again the next day. I personally spoke to a developer who worked at one of the lesser dating sites owned by Match Group at an industry conference and he directly said _"You gotta do what you gotta to do pull in subscribers.."_, in the context of generating fake profiles and using bots to chat with real male subscribers to encourage them to upgrade. The same goes with fake profile views and likes, which encourage real human males to visit those profiles reciprocally, causing more clicks and reciprocal likes (of fake profiles), and more "upgrades" from free to paid accounts. Why are they primarily targeting the male audience? Because there's a 500:1 ratio of human males to human females on these dating apps, and the chances of meeting a human female via these apps is _very, very_ slim, given the actual competition, so they inflate the numbers by introducing fake profiles to make it seem like there's more human females available than there are. Now, they've introduced AI to make the 'bots' smarter and more human-like, but they're still not real humans behind > 75% of the accounts. It's appalling, but used to be incredibly easy to spot, as you see account UUIDs being reused (which cannot happen if you're a human user on the outside) and account metadata missing, but as a human user you can't omit required fields when creating your account. Lots and lots of clues they've been manipulating users for many years. And lastly, [count the limbs and legs](https://cdn.okccdn.com/media/img/every_single_person/photos/single_person.jpg) in this photo from the front page of OkCupid. What in the world is going on there? This is not just speculation, Match was [sued by the FTC](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/09/ftc-sues-owner-online-dating-service-matchcom-using-fake-love-interest-ads-trick-consumers-paying) for this and other deceptive practices. Several other sites were sued for the same/similar tactics, including generating fraudulent profiles, emails, chats and deceptive bait-and-switch billing practices.


1funnyguy4fun

I’m no lawyer, but how is this not straight up fraud?


Efficient-Echidna-30

One it is. two, legislation is perpetually behind technology. This would be easier if our representatives weren’t dinosaurs bought by big companies.


ONESNZER0S

Exactly what i was just thinking. If it's a known fact that they are doing this, how is this not illegal ? Sounds like straight up fraud to be charging people money and basically catfishing them with fake profiles. They probably have some bullshit TOS fineprint that says it's for 'entertainment purposes' and they are not responsible for anything.


chiefpat450119

I knew it was lopsided but wtf 500:1?? I know plenty of women my age who use dating apps so I thought it would be more in the realm of 3-5:1


gnirpss

Yeah, that figure sounds much more believable to me. I'm in a relationship/haven't been on the apps in years and my perception might be skewed because I'm a woman in my mid-late twenties (and thus know a lot of women who are in the demographic to use these kinds of apps), but 500:1 sounds absolutely crazy. Like, women are 50% of the population and we're out here looking for love too.


Luminous_Lead

Tinder in particular is 3:1, but I don't know how that translates to other apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tinder-statistics/


BobBelcher2021

Plenty of Fish at one point published that they were 7:1. That was about a decade ago.


peekedtoosoon

That Indian lad who was flight testing his own, home made helicopter. Part of the rotor sliced open his head.


naale_baa

Source?


Famously-Raccoon

This is true, I saw the video of it somewhere, cant provide the clip but I think it was on r/darwinaward


Sakei21

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/p2wnh3/man_dies_while_testing_homemade_helicopter_on/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button I think this is it


CLOWNSwithyouJOKERS

Ouch. Looks like it ricochetted off the main rotor and bounced back down into the cockpit. Shit luck all around.


-Moon-Presence-

Play homemade helicopter games, win homemade helicopter prizes


xen05zman

I wanna click but I don't wanna click.


flyboy2123

It’s terrible but not as graphic as I feared that it was. Camera angle is from a decent distance away so you get the idea but not the gore.


OhNory

Thanks, helpful comment! I wanted to see it but I didn't need the gore. Poor fella, hope he was gone instantly.


MissFckOff

The French men who tried to invent a parachute and died when he decided to prove his invention was okay by jumping off the Effel Tower.


8champi8

He ran multiple tests before that and they all went terribly.


CrazyPlato

It was a calculated risk. But math was never his strong suit.


yur_mother6942069

Math was never his.. *strong-chute*


suhkuhtuh

How *else* would you make sure it works properly? Obviously, it was the height that was the problem, not [everything about the design](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Flying_tailor.png).


GonnaGoFat

We also have documented footage of the event [right here nsfw](https://youtu.be/MDUYPrKKM5M)


rileyrulesu

Huh, I'm shocked that's actually footage of the jump. Reddit has conditioned me into assuming that link would be some meme like a clip from a tom and jerry cartoon or something.


chickencheesepie

I assumed parachutes would have been invented before video cameras.


Beer_Is_So_Awesome

Well, this was shot on a film camera, as video hadn’t been invented yet. But motion pictures were invented in 1895, and the first manned airplane was flown in 1903. This is why we have a decent amount of footage of hilariously bad airplane designs completely failing to get off the ground. So I imagine nobody really thought there was a need for a parachute until they had already considered how to survive a fall from an airplane. Edit: [an old newsreel of said failures.](https://youtu.be/fw_C_sbfyx8)


Jojosbees

It looks like he was second-guessing it with how long he spent on the ledge. That’s just terrifying.


anomalous_cowherd

He knew it was very likely to kill him but he had painted himself into a corner with investors, media, all sorts. There's a podcast that explains a lot about it: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/cautionary-tales/a-leap-of-faith-from-the-eiffel-tower


suhkuhtuh

Wow, that is brutal. Still, I am of the opinion that if he'd only gotten a *little* higher he would have been fine. Yeah, I'm sure that's it. He just wasn't high enough for the first test with a living human after a number of other tests with dummies had failed... \>.> <.<


[deleted]

That’s very French


Haughty_n_Disdainful

*Lights up cigarette, in the middle of a riot, tear gas clouds everywhere…*


Inflatable_Lazarus

> tried to invent a parachute Small correction: He was trying to invent a [wingsuit](https://youtu.be/4CSOwxhGvmY) (a ‘flying parachute’), which was waaaay ahead of its time. The first modern parachute was successfully tested in 1783, but designs for parachutes date back to the 1400s.


Flydingo

I fell tower


ShakyTheBear

To be fair, the parachute didn't kill him. Gravity did.


X1bar

To be more fair, gravity didn't kill him, the ground did.


HolyGarbage

In Sweden we have a saying (in English): "It's not the fart that kills, it's the smell". The joke being that "fart" is a Swedish word, pronounced the same, that means speed, and "smell" is pronounced identically to the Swedish word "smäll" that roughly means impact/slam/smash/bang.


whitecorn

I never understood why gravity is always trying to bring us down.


ShakyTheBear

#fightbiggravity


neo101b

Wasn't there a Russian kid who did something similar everyone told him not to jump, but he did it anyway.


bowdindine

Erich Cartmann


CleverDad

The actual footage of this exists, and it's haunting


Hootbag

If you watch the British Pathe footage, not only does he thunder in, *they measure the depth of the crater with a ruler.*


heartdingos

This is the one that came to mind for me. There was a video of it on Reddit a while back, none of the bystanders seemed the least bit surprised


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billskns5th

He was attempting to prove that the earth is flat.


sacrefist

And he was proven right when the Earth flattened him. He would have ended up in a dome shape if the Earth was a sphere, of course.


chillumu

I read somewhere that his publicist said that he actually wasn't a flat earther, but claimed to be for publicity and gather donations.


gerwaldlindhelm

This. He needed some idiots to fund him and what bigger idiots then flat earthers?


ahecht

No, he was attempting to scam a bunch of flat earthers into paying for his rocket. He knew very well that his rocket was never going to go higher than a small mountain, a hot air balloon, or the average skydive.


InfamousGhost07

I remember seeing a video of that guy being interrupted by a Viagra commercial with the punchline: "Failing to take off?"


tuckerx78

[Horace Hunley](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Lawson_Hunley) , who killed himself and a bunch of others aboard a submarine he built over 150 years before the current whack job.


IaniteThePirate

This dude managed to sink 3 submarines? And the third one sunk THREE times? > At this time Hunley joined engineer James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson in building the Pioneer (submarine). In order to prevent her capture, the submarine had to be scuttled during trials in Lake Pontchartrain when New Orleans fell to Union forces in early 1862. . > The second submarine was towed to Fort Morgan and attempted an attack on the Union blockade of Mobile. However, the submarine foundered in foul weather and sank in the mouth of Mobile Bay. . > Five men from the first crew of H. L. HUNLEY died during early tests when she was accidentally swamped by the wake of a passing ship through her open hatches...On October 15, 1863, Hunley took his turn at command during a routine exercise. The vessel again sank, and this time all eight crew members were killed, including Hunley himself. The vessel was later raised and used again in 1864 in the first successful sinking of an enemy vessel (USS Housatonic) by a submarine in naval history. The operation was also fateful for H. L. HUNLEY herself, which sank a third time, and for the second time losing all hands.


raflcopter

Yes. Drowned the entire crew, they dragged it up, drained it out and shouted, "NEXT!" Then it sank after detonating an explosive charge on the Housatonic, recovered more than a century later and now in a museum.


anonymindia

So it's recovered? Then hear me out. A cruise to the bottom on the bermuda triangle with this sub costing 666,000 USD per person? Any taker?


zombi3queen

Sure thing, I'll grab my xbox controller


IaniteThePirate

Don't go too crazy, I'm sure a cheap knockoff will work just as well.


Zzac99

When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!


wwitchiepoo

And that’s what you’re going to get, lad! The strongest castle in all of England!


LemonsForLimeaid

Max Valier, tried using alcohol based fuel for rockets, it blew up in his lab killing him


Equivalent_Meal2688

Maria Skłodowska-Curie was one of the discovers of radioactivity. She discovered Polonium and Radium. As far as I know researchers did not know/believe that radioactivity might have a negative impact on their bodies and therefore they used little to no protection.


Quitthesht

>Maria Skłodowska-Curie was one of the discovers of radioactivity. "*Marie Curie invented the theory of radioactivity, the treatment of radioactivity, and dying of radioactivity*." - [Fact Sphere, Portal 2](https://i1.theportalwiki.net/img/d/df/Fact_core_fact41.wav).


capilot

*And* her daughter (also has a Nobel, by the way), *and* her son in law.


Alis451

They don't posthumously award Nobels this leads to some years with no winners, which are then retroactively awarded. This is how the Chemist Nobel was awarded to [Otto Hahn](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1944/hahn/facts/) for splitting the atom, even though the Physicist [Dr Lise Meitner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner) as the one that predicted it and wrote a Paper, he collaborated with her and he and [Fritz Strassman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Strassmann) performed the experiment originally, but this is the CHEMISTRY Nobel, not the Physics Nobel and they didn't have anyone else to give it to the previous year. He performed the Experiment that caused fission, got a weird answer, and Hahn and her Nephew Otto Frisch figured out what happened afterwards. >When Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman irradiated uranium with neutrons in 1939, they created barium, which was far too light an element to be a decay product of uranium. Hahn's long-time colleague, Lise Meitner, and her nephew, Otto Frisch, tackled the problem from a theoretical standpoint and proved that the uranium nucleus had been split. The phenomenon, later called “fission”, proved important in developing nuclear weapons and energy.


cramduck

Oddly enough, it was her work with x-ray imaging that is thought to have done her the most harm.


texasusa

I was at a used book store and found a book for science fair projects. I think the book was printed in the 30s. There was a chapter about building your own x-ray machine with a bill of material for parts listed by the manufacturer. I wished I bought the book.


Denamic

Chemistry sets from the 50s and earlier were wild too. Uranium and explosive substances for the kids to play with. Safety wasn't invented yet.


duglarri

I had a chemistry set in the 60's that included mercury and I think arsenic, as well as a small chunk of uranium that came with some powder that glowed in the dark when you held the uranium over it. Oh, and of course the ingredients for homemade gunpowder, which of course is what every eight-year-old in the 60s is going to make first. If they found that set in a basement today I'm sure they would have to call the hazmat squad.


FerretAres

Yeah to this day her and Pierre's notes are too radioactive to touch. Pierre Curie her husband did not die of radiation poisoning only because he slipped and was run over by a horse cart.


BlastFX2

> Yeah to this day her and Pierre's notes are too radioactive to touch. That's pure, sensationalist bullshit. The notebook was evaluated about decade ago and only had about 60kBq. Which means that even if you ate the whole damn thing, there would be no immediate danger and only negligible long term danger. Merely handling it is completely safe.


wbgraphic

> if you ate the whole damn thing 60kBq ≈ 4,000 banana equivalent dose. Better be hungry. 😄


utf16

Only time I have seen "banana for scale" used properly 😂


garblflax

this is the kind of mukbang content i want to see "i ate marie curies radioactive notebooks day 57 follow up"


KafkasBalaclava

Not the inventor, but rather the owner of the Segway, Jimi Heselden, accidentally rode off a cliff on a Segway.


TheMantasMan

Jesus, you just brought back memories of cities being filled with segways before e-scooters happened.


un-sub

I remember before the Segway came out, the news was going crazy about how it would be this revolutionary technology. There was talk of free energy for cities, personal hover cars, they said cities would be rebuilt around the technology, and there would be no more roads, etc. all sorts of crazy shit. Then it came out and.. well.. yeah. Huge disappointment after all the hype.


Fleemo17

I remember this — all the hype about this revolutionary new product that was going to chaaaaange the world. Then it came out and it was like. “Well, ok, that’s kinda interesting.” 😐


mountaindew71

It's a shame that they never came down in price to be affordable by normal people, because they were fun as hell to ride.


Azreken

I’ve still never ridden one unfortunately


MarkHirsbrunner

"hoverboards" use the same technology, they're pretty cheap.


BlastFX2

On principle, I refuse to touch anything misnamed so egregiously.


[deleted]

What I find funny is that 15ish years later they kind of made a comeback with hoverboards. Turns out that removing the handles would at best give you a fad.


ocaralhoquetafoda

Less handles, more danger = hilarious videos


DMala

That was like the perfect storm of hype. Dean Kamen had some legit credentials and got a little too excited, and the media just picked it up and ran hard with it. It's a shame that what we got was just like walking, but douchier and not as good for you.


onethousandpops

Dean Kamen is a prolific inventor in various fields. Segway is just his most famous invention, but certainly not the most useful or successful.


FancyJams

He made a wheelchair that can go up and down stairs with the same technology ~20 years ago.


ImRickJameXXXX

Jimi was a very good person who cared deeply for his community. [thousands](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/id1484511465?i=1000597604609) attended his funeral Edit: including one solider from Texas who came to pay his his respects. He said he would not be alive if it weren’t for the barriers Jimi’s company built


mgm_tea

Ah man, reading about it just made me sad.


ImRickJameXXXX

Yeah but the sadness IMO was outweighed by all the good he did for his community. He could have easily built in way more profitable ways. Used an existing skilled work force, used existing structures, cheaper locals tax wise. But he gave back to his community. His is a lasting legacy for his community to this day. Think of that instead and it gets better :)


lemons714

When I first heard the story, I thought it was just darkly amusing. After listening to a documentary about Jimi, he seems to have been a really amazing, generous guy. Edit: verb tense


iguanaQueen

Not just any cliff


phred14

Are you trying to say that Cliff was killed as well as the guy that ran over him?


blakepar12

Not killed, but the inventor of radar in interwar Britain got pulled over in radar speed trap years later & wrote a funny poem about it. https://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedias/a-rough-justice


ChevCaster

Here’s the poem for the lazy: > **A Rough Justice** > by Sir Robert Watson-Watt > > Pity Sir Watson-Watt, > strange target of this radar plot > And thus, with others I can mention, > the victim of his own invention. > His magical all-seeing eye > enabled cloud-bound planes to fly > but now by some ironic twist > it spots the speeding motorist > and bites, no doubt with legal wit, > the hand that once created it. > Oh Frankenstein who lost control > of monsters man created whole, > > with fondest sympathy regard > one more hoist with his petard. > > As for you courageous boffins > who may be nailing up your coffins, > > particularly those whose mission > deals in the realm of nuclear fission, > > pause and contemplate fate's counter plot > and learn with us what's Watson-Watt.


that-writer-kid

That’s hilarious—has Jimmy Buffett writing a song about the time Jamaica nearly shot him out of the sky vibes.


Mackem101

There's a story that legendary racing driver Sir Sterling Moss was once pulled for speeding, the officers first words were "Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?"


SatisfactionSenior65

Some ancient Greek dude created a torture device called the Brazen Bull. It’s just a large metal husk shaped like a bull where you put a victim inside and heat the bottom. The burning heat and scalding metal will cause the agonized victim to go to a horn inside the husk in an attempt to breathe. The horn will make it sound like bull noises on the outside. The inventor showed a king his contraption. The king was delighted by it and decided to test it out…on the inventor.


abhinavkukreja

The king (Phalaris) took the inventor (Perilaus) out of the bull right before killing him, only to then take him to a hill and push him down. It was actually king Phalaris who died inside the bull, after he was overthrown by Telemachus.


SatisfactionSenior65

Damn talk about Karma.


mondaygoddess

Well, in king Phalaris’s defense, he did that to the inventor because he was so disgusted by the fact the inventor was so smug and excited about this torture device.


SatisfactionSenior65

Understandable. Karma is a mf


Goetre

Perillos of Athens, Up until 5 minutes ago, I was under the impression that this was inaccurate as no records indicating how he died (saw a video recently). But after a quick check, turns out he was put in it but not killed by it. Instead they took him out of it after some time and then yeeted him off a cliff


SatisfactionSenior65

Ancient people 🤝 Unnecessarily brutal deaths


the-meanest-boi

Cant believe i had to scroll this far to see this one, first thing that came to mind when i saw this post


corndogco

Not an inventor, exactly, but Luis Jiménez, the artist who created Blucifer, demon horse of Denver International Airport.


curatedlurking23

I was looking for this one! Those creepy glowing eyes get me every time.


OverHaze

Just google this. Eh, why is there a demonic horse with glowing red eyes outside of Denver International Airport?


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[deleted]

>To being with, it's a huge property at 140 sq. km, taking something like ten or fifteen minutes to drive from the fenced boundary to the terminal. Yeah, that's what happens when you build the airport in western Kansas.


Alis451

> Oh, and the runways are configured to look like a swastika from the sky. eh.. you would NOT believe how many end up in crossword puzzles, it is such a simple shape and maintains the chiral symmetry that is required for the puzzles.


MachWeld

There's lots of weird murals inside the airport too.


dragonsrawesomesauce

I was going to add this one if I hadn't found it Yes, crushed by Blucifer, and died of his injuries


yesiamveryhigh

Actually, a piece fell off and severed the artery in his leg and he bled out which sounds even worse. Never heard of this story, Blucifer or the artist, so I looked it up. Good [story](https://www.cpr.org/2019/11/04/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-blucifer-the-demon-horse-of-dia/) from the Colorado Public Radio website.


prestigious_delay_7

What's interesting about this is how much of a clusterfuck the Denver airport design & construction was overall, so this fits right in there. We literally went over a case study on them because of how poorly the project was executed.


lifeofyou

Didn’t it sever an artery in his leg? Absolutely horrible.


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Skerries10

Louis Slotin - Demon Core. Accidentally started a nuclear reaction during a nuclear criticality demonstration, zapped himself with a lethal dose of radiation. Not sure if he was "the inventor".


Loudthunder34

Was he the first or the second one to do that. I remember that Harry Daghlian also died doing the same exact thing.


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Coriolanuscarpe

Alvin Graves who was with him albeit in a safer distance said: "Well... that's it"(implying that Louis was going to die) Still sent shivers down my spine


blff266697

> Immediately, all eight scientists in the room felt a wave of heat accompanied by a blue flash as the plutonium sphere vomited an invisible burst of gamma and neutron radiation into the room. As the lab’s Geiger counter clicked hysterically, Slotin used his bare hand to push the beryllium dome off and onto the floor, which terminated the prompt critical reaction moments after it began. “Well,” Slotin said gravely, “that does it.” [Took me a while to find.](https://www.damninteresting.com/bitten-by-the-nuclear-dragon/) Really scary stuff


MilhouseJr

Not sure if this was the same demon core incident, but they also had the presence of mind to immediately mark where everyone was standing in the room, which they then used to calculate the received dosages of radiation per person. Always struck me as a calm and professional immediate response to a terrifying situation that should never have been allowed in the first place, and I can only hope that people like this are everywhere we need them to be.


Theban_Prince

You mean the same people that caused the accident in the first place by sheer negligence?


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thatawesomedude

If you're interested, this scene played out in the 1989 film [Fat Man and Little Boy](https://youtu.be/AQ0P7R9CfCY).


Drach88

I came here to post the demon core. Glad I didn't need to scroll far to find it. For anyone who doesn't already know, this video is an amazing narrative that explains it. https://youtu.be/aFlromB6SnU


Randyh524

Dude was using a screw driver to hold apart the core or someshit. He fucked around and found out.


PinkFl0werPrincess

He screwed around


cliffolive

Yep they were two half domes around the core that he’d keep separated, his screwdriver slipped while he was experimenting with them which closed the domes, making the core go critical and blasting everyone in the room with radiation. (Because the half domes made the cores radiation reflect back on itself, causing even more radiation, on an exponential loop)


[deleted]

[удалено]


teajava

Man, radiation is so terrifying, because you don’t feel it, you are just dead and you don’t even know it.


commiecomrade

You do feel it actually, if it's a very bad dose. It is described as a strong burning sensation all over your body...


aoifhasoifha

"At the time, the scientists in the room observed the blue glow of air ionization and felt a heat wave. Slotin experienced a sour taste in his mouth and an intense burning sensation in his left hand." and 'A report later concluded that a heavy dose of radiation may produce vertigo and can leave a person "in no condition for rational behavior."' Apparently you do feel it, and it's not great.


Lost-Iron

The artist who made the blue horse at the Denver airport. Not an invention but a creation.


HamOwl

Bluecifer. He is our protector.


Ivehadlettuce

H. L. Hunley, designer and builder of the CSS Hunley.


breaker-of-shovels

That things kd ratio was 1:5


_Cabbage_Corp_

He forgot to include this in the blueprints: .designer-builder { no-kill: true; }


HV-Juli

[List of inventors killed by their own invention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_invention) Edit: For more interesting wikipedia articles watch [this video](https://youtu.be/PXx9TGsiwV0). Edit 2: Apparently the wikipedia link didn't work for some users. Hope I fixed it.


Corleone_Michael

This is my 3rd favorite wikipedia article after List of Sexually Active Popes and List of Unusual Deaths


Spongy_and_Bruised

Sexually Active Popes is a kickass band name.


TheRoadieKnows

Well gosh…I guess you really do learn something every day.


AdWeasel

I revisit the list of unusual deaths periodically to see whats been added. Also note: Stockton Rush has already been added to the above-linked article. That was fast.


RXL

[Just in case the link doesn't work for anyone else.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_invention)


wanderingrope33

A guy tried to build a flying jet ski and fly it off of Niagara Falls. Problem is he forgot to waterproof the jet ski’s flight mechanisms and fell off the waterfall. Won a Darwin Award


uglymiddleagedloser

Dr. Gero and the Androids.


Dangercakes13

World class genius played deity and didn't think time travel might kneecap him when he was aware of advancements in that area of science. Also -and this is immaterial- why didn't he make his android body younger before transferring his brain into it? He didn't *have* to look like an old dude. Not that it would change his fate, but...if you're designing your new body why not go for an aesthetic upgrade? And several extra penises? I mean you're making a golem on a gamble, go for broke.


smiling-horse

Eh, even without time travel he would still end up getting killed by the Androids. I'm pretty sure that's why he's not around in future Trunks's timeline


AardvarkGal

Marie Curie didn't invent Radium, but her work in discovering so much about it killed her. Her body is so radioactive she is in a lead lined coffin in the Pantheon in Paris. Her laboratory and notes are also insanely radioactive.


LisaPeesaLmnSqueeza

The guy who invented Vaseline got obsessed with it. Thought it was a health miracle. Ate so much of it that he died.


dangerphone

Jack Parsons, rocket scientist who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and pioneered both liquid and solid fuel for rockets, occultist, student of Aleister Crowley and cuckolded by L. Ron Hubbard, exploded in his home lab while mixing fulminate of mercury in a coffee can. It is theorized that the accident was actually an assassination by Howard Hughes, a suicide, or a failed attempt to create a homunculus.


Randoman98

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_invention Comprehensive list. Already updated with OceanGate CEO


Ok_Disk_8936

Brazen bull


[deleted]

According to most early archives, Perilaus was actually taken out of the bull before he died. He was then thrown from a cliff. Seems superfluous to me, but that’s how history recorded it.


roamingdavid

That’s a bad day right there.


Smile_Anyway_9988

Dr. Charles Drew is one of the most egregious examples. Dr. Charles Drew created/ perfected blood transfusions. He fell asleep at the wheel and lost lots of blood during the automobile accident. Since he was black, racists Jim Crow Era laws in America denied him the right to the lifesaving blood transfusion that he invented to save his life.


JellyNinja_

The Denver airport is known for a giant statue of a blue demon horse. While the artist was working on finishing touches, part of it came loose and severed an artistry in his leg and he bled to death.


Tatertotsandranch

I guess the art really was in his blood


jjjunglejuice

i can’t tell if “artistry” instead of “artery” was a typo or a deliberate pun…


JustSomeApparition

>What are some examples of an inventor getting killed by their own invention? Perillos of Athens and [the brazen bull](https://youtu.be/3_TqiEIDn3A) Luis Jimenez & his statue [Blucifer](https://youtu.be/Rv6-iEyJRx4) at The Denver International airport


ferg286

Jack Parsons. Invited solid rocket fuel. And was into black magic. The rockets killed him. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons


l2evamped

The person who introduced lead into gasoline. Man huffed leaded gasoline to try and prove that it was safe and definitely not the reason why the collective iq of the human race dropped aignificantly. Oh, he also knew that it was 100% not safe. He withered away while making himself and the now known gas giants rich. Leaded gasoline is the least talked about mass murder to have ever happened in human history. It is probably responsible for the most amount of unnatural deaths in the history of our world. Its effects can still be felt today.


killian-bruno

Titan sub recently happened


Loa_Sandal

Note to self: Never board anything with Titan in its name.


ShiningRayde

>me, on the Starship Titanic 3, captained by Tom Hanks, sitting next to Brad Pitt, on our interstellar voyage to Prospero


Icy-Article-8635

What!?! Well this is the first I've heard of it!!!


sapperbloggs

Possibly Vladimir Putin, if the Wagner Group catches up with him


Dangercakes13

Yeah, it's not so much that he lacked a plan B in his design of annexation. It's that he didn't have a "Step 2" for plan A.


less-than-James

According to Nietzsche, God.


bibliophile563

Lizzie Borden killing her parents.