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The major proponent was also known as Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0] Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a m
by louky 2mo ago
The major proponent was also known as
Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0]
Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a machine that ended his own existence.[1]
[0]https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
- mmooss 2mo ago> Accidentally Based on the OP, it wasn't at all accidental. They knew it was dangerous and chose it because they could make more money than with safer alternatives such as ethanol.
- cyberax 2mo agoI don't think he really appreciated the danger of lead. Its acute toxicity was well-known, but not its chronic toxicity. And plenty of stuff is toxic in large quantities but harmless (or even vital!) in small quantities.
- mmooss 2mo agoInteresting - what is that based on? He's not some incidental commentator. He's an engineer and a principle force behind this technology. He is responsible for the outcomes - 'I didn't know' is reckless negligence. And if there were clear acute problems, chronic problems weren't hard to guess at for anyone, much less an engineer, with all those resources, working on it for years.
- sysguest 2mo ago> engineer and a principle force behind this technology well he's not some biochemist... and even biochemists have trouble within their own field because there's so much 'unknown' stuff in biochem (eg Thalidomide scandal)
- whatisthiseven 2mo agoThen you don't know anything about the man. He intentionally inhaled large quantities of leaded gas to prove it was safe to on lockers. He would then spend months in Florida recovering from lead poisoning. He knew, and he didn't care.
- cyberax 2mo agoYeah, that kinda reinforces it. He knew about the acute effects, but not about cumulative damage. I don't think that cumulative toxicity started entering the public mindset until well into the middle of the century.
- mmooss 2mo agoHe's not 'the public' but a highly educated and experienced leading expert in the subject. You have no idea what he knew (afaict) and even if the chronic problems were indeed unknown to him, anyone, even a member of 'the public', could infer that the acute problems certainly risked long-term problems
- embedding-shape 2mo agoI had one purple link on that second Wikipedia page, which (macabre as it sounds) was very interesting to read through: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_invention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_th... Also leads to another great list-of-lists; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unusual_deaths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unusual_deaths
- b-kf 2mo agoEven more macabre (I should not admit to this publically...): I can't help but find this one (from your first link) quite... hilarious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reichelt.ogv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reichelt.ogv Elaborate contraption, jumps, falls like a stone, is dead. The end. Imaginary person: "But he had balls and believed in his own theories." Me: "Ehm but... how difficult would it have been to throw a wooden puppet instead... or run scaled down experiments first,... than to just immediately jump..." And Edit: He did run dummy experiments and they clearly showed he shouldn't have jumped https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt#Experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt#Experiments Edit 2: That article is very interesting, regarding the jump: "Initial reports speculated on Reichelt's state of mind: none assumed he had been suicidal, but many called him discombobulated in the brain. [...] interview with one of his friends, who claimed that the tailor had felt pressured into giving a dramatic demonstration to attract sponsors, without whom he could not expect to make a profit before any patent expired." (So human nature at play. Financial pressure, wanting to will something to work, guts in the wrong places. An heroic last ditch stunt, combined with a not quite sane state of mind)
- embedding-shape 2mo agoThere just are so many unfortunate deaths, that one feels so preventable as well. I also have to admit to liking the ending of the Wikipedia image description a lot: > [...] Police and others crowd around the body of Reichelt as it is carried away. They then measure the depth of the hole in the frozen ground made by his fall (15 cm). At least they got something out of it I suppose :)
- flaunf221 2mo ago> The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived The titles like annoy me to no end. Because Thomas Midgley was an engineer. Not overlord of General Motors. Not director. Not even a large shaholder. GM Leadership knew effects of TEL. And for decades traded everyone's health for their profits. Midgley is complicit, but he's just a small piece.
- gertop 2mo agoPeople who absolve engineers of all responsibility annoy me to no end. They're omnipresent on this forum and justify working for Facebook with things like "not my decision" or "someone else would do it" or "it's not that bad you just don't understand" or "I'm just following orders"
- hyperhello 2mo agoPeople who say annoy me to no end annoy me no end. They’re different phrases.
- tux3 2mo agoThat's ironic, because the "no end" form was already a relatively new idiom. But "to no end" has already overtaken it in terms of popularity. Of course I meant the word "ironic" like I mean the word "literally"; which is to say, figuratively. Being a prescriptivist creates no end of everyday pains. Language just won't conform.
- hyperhello 2mo agoThe thing is that it’s always used in “annoy” or “frustrate” because they mistake the response as sympathetic annoyance or empathic frustration when it’s really just their misuse of language. I don’t want them to be responsible for their miscommunication in the future!
- jjk166 2mo agoThey are not different phrases. "Annoy to no end" is the American English version while "annoy no end" is the British. Both are acceptable and mean the same thing.
- tmtvl 2mo agoAlso the subject of a very entertaining episode of Citation Needed.
- mapmeld 2mo agoI was in Dayton Ohio to see the Wright brothers stuff. There were sidewalk plaques for inventors and celebrities who lived in the city, and they had one for Thomas Midgley Jr. I was shocked! Fun fact: during their time Dayton had the most patents per capita of anywhere in the US.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- JKCalhoun 2mo agoI liked the comment someone made some months back when Thomas Midgley Jr. came up on HN: best to ban everything the guy ever invented just to be safe.