One recent study hypothesized that increased lead exposure may have contributed to the mid century rise in crime. Starting in the s TEL was phased out and as of only produced in a few places in the world.
But lead contamination remains in areas where TEL-fueled vehicles were common. CFCs were developed to solve a long-standing problem with early refrigerators: they were extremely unsafe. Leaks of this gas killed families in their sleep. Midgley with a team of scientists undertook a search for a non-toxic, non-flammable refrigerant. In , they found a solution in dichlorodifluoromethane, which they sold under the brand name freon To demonstrate its safety, Midgley inhaled the stuff and blew out a candle.
Freon caught on and became ubiquitous in refrigerators, cooling units and aerosol spray cans as propellants. Lauded, Midgley won almost every prestigious award in his profession. Aside from TEL and freon, Midgley also held about other patents. In , at the age of 51, Thomas Midgley contracted poliomyelitis , commonly simply called polio. Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system causing total paralysis in a matter of hours.
In cases, polio leads to death when the breathing muscles become immobilized. Normally, polio affects only children under five years of age. The disease left Midgley disabled and in need of constant help. He then invented a pulley system to help himself get out of bed without any help.
However, just as all his previous deadly inventions, his plan didn't work very well. On November 2, , he died of asphyxiation at the age of 55 after his own deadly invention strangled him to death when it entangled itself around his neck. It is safe to say that Thomas Midgley Jr. By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Follow Us on. On December 9, , a chemist delivered a small amount of tetraethyl lead, or TEL, and when Midgley added the TEL to the fuel and started the one-cylinder test engine, the engine knock was gone.
The company's name was carefully chosen to avoid the use of the word "lead," but safeguards at the factory weren't as effective. Not long after it opened, workers at the Ethyl plant began suffering from lead poisoning. Two workers died from exposure to what the press called "loony gas.
However, these precautionary warnings went unheeded, and the primary phase-out of leaded gasoline in the US was not completed until Increased awareness of the negative health effects of leaded gasoline led to its progressive phasing out, a process which began in the US in the s and is still ongoing only Algeria continues to use leaded petrol today.
But nearly a century of using leaded gasoline as a fuel means that huge amounts of lead remain trapped in the soil, air, water and in our bodies. According to a article in The New England Journal of Medicine , the average levels of lead in the bones of modern people are times higher than those of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North America.
Returning to the s and Thomas Midgley, his next major invention was intended to solve a problem with General Motors refrigerators, which were becoming a popular household appliance in the Roaring Twenties. These devices sometimes leaked refrigerant gases, either sulphur dioxide corrosive to the eyes and skin or methyl formate highly toxic if inhaled, and also flammable.
Midgley led the scientific team that in developed a non-toxic and non-flammable refrigerant called dichlorodifluoromethane, the very first of the chlorofluorocarbons CFCs , which was sold under the brand name Freon Ever the showman, Midgley demonstrated its effectiveness to the American Chemical Society by inhaling a lungful of the gas and blowing out a candle. In the decades that followed, chlorofluorocarbons became ubiquitous around the world as refrigerants, propellants in aerosol cans and solvents.
Although the hole caused by CFCs seems to have stabilised, the current situation is still worrying and the damage will take decades to repair itself. While Midgley can be forgiven for the CFC catastrophe, the same cannot be said of tetraethyl lead, whose toxic effects were clear from the start.
Thomas Midgley received many prestigious awards for these two discoveries, especially for Ethyl gasoline, as well as his other patents. In , Midgley contracted polio and became paralysed and bedridden. Being a keen inventor, he devised a system of ropes and pullies that allowed others to lift and manoeuvre his body.
On 2 November , he became entangled in the ropes and died of strangulation at the age of After the global damage caused by his two great discoveries, his final invention harmed only him.
Click Enter. Login Profile.
0コメント