I remember as a teenager there was still bottles of lead additive for older gas engines in gas stations & auto part stores. Doesn’t seem that long ago.
I already knew about this guy, but it still blows my mind that 1 guy created 2 things that both enabled humankind to reach such high potentials but also were 2 of the single most destructive inventions the world has ever known. If that's not representative of the ability of both the power and responsibility that humans have over the planet then nothing is
Fritz Haber, Prussian Chemist. Invented artificial fertilizer, allowing farms the world over to immensely boost their production and thus feed a LOT more people. Also invented the first Toxic Gas and the basics of chemical Warfare in World War one.
Most destructive? Idk about that. Think that title still goes to atomic bombs. Everyone likes to blame gas and fossil fuels go destroying the atmosphere. No one ever talks about how much damage all of our and USSR’s nuclear testing did during the Cold War.
@@mr_dillus that's why nuclear power cracks me up. We're splitting atoms to heat water to turn a turbine, not directly harnessing the radiation and thermal energy. And ppl think we're going to solve fusion energy soon, laughable
Ah, Thomas, my old friend. I wrote my undergraduate thesis in history on Midgley, years ago. One of the things that turned up in my research was that a number of Midgley's contemporaries, including members of his family, believed his death was not accidental, but a carefully engineered suicide prompted by despair over his condition. (Not, as some have speculated since, remorse over his inventions. There's no evidence he ever saw lead as anything other than a necessary evil, and no one on Earth had the slightest idea CFCs were anything but a harmless miracle until decades after his death.) As an aside, the beneficial aspects of leaded gasoline during Midgley's lifetime weren't only economic. TEL led (as it were) to the development of high-octane fuel, particularly for aviation use, by American oil companies, which gave aircraft on the Allied side of World War II enormous performance advantages over their opponents. For example, the average octane rating of the gasoline German fighters had to settle for was about 65, as opposed to 100 or more for the RAF and U.S. Army Air Forces fighters they were up against after 1941. (By comparison, even the lowliest pump gas sold in the US today is in the mid-80s.)
Left out my favorite part of the tetra ethol lead story - Charles Norris (the first medical examiner in the us) saw the harm it caused (he was brought in on the employee deaths by the state of New Jersey), and tried to lobby against it. He demonstrated the effects of lead in the bodies he received, but general motors launched their campaign anyway.
This was a wild ride from start to finish! I had no idea that the same guy who put lead in gasoline and invented Freon also invented the first Hoyer lift (the lift that gets you from your wheelchair to your bed or vice versa) and not only that but died in his own invention after having testing everything on himself for years. Just wild! Thank you for the excellent content once again! I love this stuff!
@@eustab.anas-mann9510 Well, if his family was correct that he died by suicide, then he was probably creating a plausibly accidental death -- suicide is still stigmatized, but the stigma used to be much worse then.
He probably didn't associate his deteriorating health to his invention testing. The fact that he experimented on himself demonstrates that he had genuine faith in the innocuous character if his inventions.
@@nozoto Regardless, he got sick after trying to prove tetra ethyl lead doesn’t get you sick. He chose not to say anything. They knew the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. It’s hubris that made him think it wasn’t his demonstration moments prior.
@@jamesc8259 He didn't know that terta ethyl lead was making him sick. And he wasn't getting sick moments after his demonstrations. Heavy metal poisoning is a slow killer, as it takes time for them to build up to toxic levels in your system. Mercury, for example, in miniscule amounts, is perfectly harmless. But a lifetime of exposure can be fatal. It wasn't like he took a breath of TEL and minutes later went running off to Florida.
@@jfangm I’ve read his story. He did know, he was even warned about lead poisoning from TEL in 1922. He was DIAGNOSED with lead poisoning. He was fired of his position as Vice President of GMCC in April 1925.
@@jamesc8259 He was warned about the dangers. That does not mean he knew it was TEL that did it. He believed it was harmless. Stop using hindsight and actually look at the matter from HIS perspective.
I often think about that, how back then the people in power listened to scientists and took action swiftly to address the issue. I fear that Social Media and weaponized ignorance will be our downfall
The difference was that only manufacturers were forced to change anything, and only a relatively small change at that. Their was no change for the public - the different propellant in their deodorant made no difference. The public did not have to change their ways or confront themselves and ask if they should adapt to the new or double down on the old and continue as normal. Much the same with switching from leaded to unleaded fuel, you just used a different pump from the same gas station. No one was asked to not use aerosols or to switch to an entirely different form of energy technology to power their new car. This made it easy for politicians to listen to the scientists and legislate new standards without it costing them votes.
In California a chemical by the name “MTMB” was added to gasoline. It was in the fuel for about four years and they never added it again. Shortly after the additive was abandoned news reports started talking about autism. This was in the early ‘90’s.
I remember a prof who knew Prof Rowland and grimly recounted how much groups and orgs tried to discredit not only the research but Rowland himself. It was disquieting how haunted our Prof looked and his conviction sharing how much people need to push to see data make the difference it can
I was a student living in the dorms at UC Irvine when the discovery that Freon was a problem came out. A local radio station broadcast an editorial lambasting the discovery, and suggesting that rotten tomatoes be thrown at UCI. As an English major and resident who had nothing to do with that research, I was offended by the suggestion of vandalism, even though I, too, was skeptical of the research findings at first. If it had happened these days, quite possibly a bunch of people would indeed show up and start vandalizing the campus with tomatoes and other stuff.
@@gohawks3571 Hey, some have wondered if lead pipes and cups contributed to mental issues in ancient Rome which ultimately led to its fall. The ancient Greeks knew about lead's poisonous qualities.
The wild thing to me is that he somehow believed his lift was an easier way to do things than just asking for help when he needed it. Like, if that isn't a metaphor I don't know what is.
@@stevencooke6451 Justice? He believed his inventions would improve the lives of millions or even billions of people. There was no ill intent on his part.
"...seeking fuel additive that reduce or eliminate engine knocking" Me : "Oh no...He's the guy to put lead in the fuel...right? [later] "Midgley was given a new problem to work on : refirgeration." Me : "Not the CFC, right?" I certainly wasn't expecting the inventor of both to be the same person.
If he hadn't died immediately from that invention and had gotten the time to patent it, potentially hundreds more could have met the same fate with his commercialized deathtrap.
@@drakkenmensch The difficulty of a hoist isn't the harness, it is all the other bits. Harnesses can be dangerous for those who might have a fit, or have mental conditions that might make them struggle, but otherwise they are safe (and hard to make them otherwise). So it is most likely that he committed suicide whilst making it look like an accident. Remember there was still a huge taboo against suicide in those days.
"He discovered you could add lead..." Uh-oh. "...he was able to create freon..." Oh, no... "It was his own invention that killed him..." Uuuugggghhh... It was like his whole life was a slow-motion train wreck. A creative inventor, cursed to discover the most destructive in the long-term solutions to problems facing mankind at the moment. I genuinely feel bad for him.
I think it's interesting to hear a story about a guy who wasn't making these decisions and inventing out of greed, corruption, negligence or anything like that, but genuinely trying and wanting to do good. And his creations worked to solve the problems of the time, supported by the science of the time. It doesn't seem like there was a malicious intent about any of it (though conveniently going to a clean open air environment after feeling the effects of lead poisoning was a laugh). I wonder how he'd react innuendo what we know now, and how his inventions changed humanity.
I'm not sure that going to a clean air environment would do much to reverse lead poisoning. Especially since the leaded fuel made airborne lead the problem. I didn't realize they made sure to push all the lead out the tailpipe, instead of letting it stay in the engine.
@@EXROBOWIDOW They didn't necessarily need to push it out the tailpipe, but unlike most of the other emissions, it's an element, so your only real option is to either push it out the tailpipe, or find some way of trapping it. It's not like CO, O3 or NO2 that are problematic as chemicals, but the individual elements aren't of any real consequence and they are the result of chemical reactions going on in the engine.
I knew there’d be a comment like this. He was incredibly arrogant about his inventions and how safe they were. People were getting sick from the lead in the factories and he went out of his way to try and convince people it was safe even though it made him sick as well. You think someone like that was being altruistic or just didn’t know? You’re being naive. He knew lead wasn’t safe, he just didn’t want that to interfere with his fame, praise, and money. As far as the CFCs, again the arrogance is astounding. He proclaimed it safe without actually knowing whether it was safe or not because the guy was an engineer, not a chemist. He used chemical combinations that solved the problem at hand and didn’t immediately kill people and considered his job finished.
@@Idontwantone950Since the start of the Enlightenment every generation has had more knowledge than the last. In 1920 people only knew of acute toxicity, not chronic. To label everyone who thought lead, asbestos, radium, cigarette smoke, DDT, frepn, mercury, etc. were safe 'Arrogant' is unfair. Which of your present beliefs will we learn are incorrect 20 years from now?
Leaded fuel is dead worldwide as of 2021. It's no longer manufactured anywhere and every single country on Earth has either banned its use or are forcibly phasing it out. North Korea banned leaded fuel in 2016.
Leaded gas isn't completely gone, but its use in on-road passenger vehicles is banned, and the invention of the catalytic converter helped get that passed since catalytic converters remove the need for leaded fuel. High-octane leaded fuel is still produced for and used by certain racing cars, aircrafts, and some farming equipment.
@@queenspikes2521 Although described as leaded, the modern fuels use a compound of potassium as the antiknock ingredient. It was by changing the valve and piston ring steel hardness that allowed vehicles to run on unleaded fuel. Change to compression ratio and ignition timing were also needed.
As a young journalist, I found data about kids' blood lead levels in a certain kindergarten in Helsinki. At that time the levels were already ok (thank you, catalytic coneverters and unleaded gas!) but the old data was really horryfying. The kindergarten was situated next to a really busy street, that's why the kids' health had been studied for many years. I really wonder how much this actually had affected the kids in earlier years.
First heard of Thomas Midgley from the show Dark Matters twisted but true. That is such a good show please bring it back and please release every season!
It’s always interesting when we, as a people, discover that some of our most helpful inventions are harming us while they are helping us. DuPont has had a few products like that, but so have many large companies. It’s always the devil you don’t know that gets you in the end. A scientist would say it’s; “The law of unintended consequences”, and for the most part that’s true. As you said in the video “Scientists began to be able to measure our world more accurately”. It’s usually when we take a closer look that we discover what we didn’t notice all along, such as the cancer rate being 10 times higher in a town that makes the weed killer “Roundup”. Or shipbuilders having about a 300% higher chance of getting mesothelioma. Sometimes we just aren’t aware of what’s going on right under our own noses….
Discover? Even 100 years ago people understood that lead was harmful, he suffered from lead poisoning after his little experiment to prove that leaded petrol was safe. I guess advertising/PR was the social media of the era...
"The first practical vapor compression refrigeration system was built by James Harrison, a Scottish Australian. His 1856 patent was for a vapor compression system using ether, alcohol or ammonia. He built a mechanical ice-making machine in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Victoria, and his first commercial ice-making machine followed in 1854. Harrison also introduced commercial vapor-compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861, a dozen of his systems were in operation."
Leas, Freon - makes me wonder how so many of us “older” people are still alive😯😯. I remember when we could buy Freon to recharge the a/c in our cars! I know I bought some and had a friend (who knew how to do it) do the recharging of my a/c in my car!
@@sandybruce9092 My dad had bought an old freezer case (1930s or 1940s-era) from a grocery store and had it stored in the basement. He was working on it one night when he nicked a coil, releasing the Freon. He got us up and ordered us out of the house (fortunately, it was summer) in our pajamas until he could ventilate the basement. CORRECTION: On second thought, the gas was probably ammonia, not Freon. My bad.
The sheer irony of Midgely convincing the public that leaded fuel was safe *while* suffering from lead poisoning is unbelievable to me. On the other hand, without his inventions I have no doubt that we would not be where we are today technologically.
Sadly, lead poisoning sneaks up on you and is hard to catch. And I agree, without refrigeration we would have been in a very different situation today. And the lift that wound up killing him has been perfected too and is a great help to many thousands. The man genuinely tried to make the world better for everyone and largely succeeded.
The depletion of the Ozone layer was definitely an unknown side effect of Freon, but the dangers of lead were known when Midgley created leaded fuel and purposely made massive quantities of it be dumped all over cities. Soon after, he even had firsthand experience of it but didn't change course. This is why he was a villain and a warning for how science can be corrupted by selfishness.
This. The presenter makes it sound like literally no one knew while simultaneously explaining how there was backlash from both the public and scientists and who corpos used their unconstitutional power over speech to silence. Sometimes I wonder if the people who make these videos and see the same corporate lizards mass murder people for profit over and over and over and over will ever wake up as I did to the real enemy of our civilization. Put them all into rocket. Write on rocket the name of every innocent murdered in the name of profit since the industrial revolution. Rocket into sun.
@@ryszard68 Concentration makes a giant difference in toxicity level. The amount of fluoride added to municipal drinking water is usually around .7 miligrams per liter. If you are worried about your local water, please get it tested.
@@k33k32 It is nothing short of criminal how Flint's poisonous water went unaddressed for so long. And indeed a number of government officials were charged with crimes related to their failures. Absolutely tragic how many children's lives and potential have been damaged by it.
The older I get the more I believe that lawyers who try to prevent exposure of public health risks should be imprisoned when those risks are found to be true. It would make then think twice before chucking threatening letters around.
I feel the same about letting serious offenders out of prison early. If they re-offend then those who let them out should get the same sentence. That would make them think twice and care a dam.
@@mobilephil244Create a redemptive model of incarceration, instead of the retributive revenge model we as Americans now embrace, and you might see some progress. But we good, God fearing folk really love the never forgive and punishment lasts forever mindset. Cause Biblical God loved it so.
One technical note: the refrigerator being advertised in a very short film clip herein was a Servel gas-powered unit. The Servel had its own problems, but Freon refrigerant wasn't one of them: the absorption refrigeration cycle uses ammonia for the purpose.
Absorption fridges lasted forever. but they were not energy efficient, with a COP of less than 1. The process was originally designed for industry, providing cooling from the waste heat from steam turbines.
You should definitely do a story on Ray Brent Marsh who ran the Tri State crematory in Noble, Georgia U.S.A. his nefarious deeds were discovered in 2002. They found over 300 bodies on his property. Would make a great story for your channel.
I heard about that, bodies stacked in his roof spaces. If i remember rightly his ovens broke and he just never got them fixed as it was making more money not burning them. I live in England
The same group of studies that found these chemicals where damaging the environment, also found the dangers of oil and gas refinement and burning, among many other toxins and pollutants. However the petrochem industry at the time either didn't care, or made sure to bury the information.
This is true but it gets worse. The first studies of fossil fuel emissions were commissioned by oil companies in the 1950s. The scientists were silenced by coercion, bribery, and occasionally assassination. The fossil fuel industry has known about the disaster they are causing for 70+ years and still try to minimize the perception of their impact with "clean coal" and such nonsense. They do not care and will not stop unless forced to.
Yet without petrochemical industries we'd have had no commercial aircraft, almost no private cars and haulage etc Think about it. Global shipping would be by sail - because steam also required fossil fuels, unpredictable, unreliable, and unsafe (by tonnages shipping became safer, more reliable and cheaper once fossil fuels were used). The huge economies of recent history would not exist, the or would be technologically backwards... It's also naive to think that because Europe and the USA didn't use petrochemicals, that other non European aligned countries would not adopt them too. I'll tell you this, the generations that are going to be more affected by climate change, are the ones more dependent on the contributing technologies. Older generations got used to reusing what they had or making do. It's not the elderly people replacing smartphones every six months to a year, having up to four holidays abroad a year, going abroad for stag and hen weekends, having to have a new car on finance...if technology ended today, it's not the pensioners that will be crying and unable to cope lol
Midgley's name rang a bell with me, but I couldn't place it until engine knocking was mentioned. Then I remembered. I wasn't aware however that he was also the inventor of Freon, that was a revelation to me. Another wonderful video FH, cheers 👍
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht I know several people - young and old - who have had four or five jabs. One has died, and that was because he was in his mid nineties and was ill beforehand, with zero complications from the vaccine.
Define "massive harm". Automobiles have killed millions, yet they are essential to modern society. Imagine how many beneficial things would disappear without them. Same can be said for TEL and Freon.
Several other UA-camrs have made excellent videos on this same topic, but it bears repeating. A cautionary tale that we would do well to remember today.
Lead was in widespread use in the 20th Century: the legacy of lead pipes ( still a problem in parts of the USA), lead paint & toys as well as leaded fuel ( which also boosted the octane of gasoline. There was a star rating in use 2⭐ for motorbikes & outboard engines, 4⭐ for most cars but once lead was removed 5⭐ for high performance engines was no longer produced).
Yes I remember 2 star and 4 star petrol in the UK in the late 70's/early 80's. My Dad used to mostly use 2 star in his old car, but would occasionally 'treat' it to some 4 star :)
Yup glad you mentioned the pipes and paint. Lead has been used in so many things people don’t realize. Used to be used a lot in medical tools and devices. Used to be used in internal structures not just paints. Used to be used a lot in toys too. So it’s hard to solely blame lead fuel for destroying the planet or increase in. Yes it’s a factor, but given there’s lead in so many others things like pipes where it leaks into the water supply, or old paints, toys, buildings, etc that get burned or thrown into land fills which seep down into the ground, it’s no shock there’s lead everywhere.
@@nthgth I suspect when Terminator becomes reality the robots will be making documentaries about Open AI and how it was the equivalent of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs...
"what would he have thought of next? " Probably work for a beauty company and come up with something with a scientifc name, such as bihydro pro-betazone B19 revitilising serum. Which was based on arsenic.
in 1786, Benjamin Franklin wrote that the dangerous effects of lead had already been known for at least 60 years, he continues 'you will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practised on'.
Regardless of the content, I thoroughly appreciate your measured recounting of the incidents you feature. No rushed narratives. Also the meticulous detail you include is amazing. Such a lot of work, thank you.
You'd think that he'd realise that perhaps lead fuel was actually dangerous when he poured it all over himself and inhaled it then had to go on a holiday for several months due to lead poisoning. The cognitive dissonance was real. AND THEN HE KILLED HIMSELF WITH HIS OWN SPECIAL CHAIR! Man was suicidally confident in himself and everyone else had to pay the price.
If I have to explain to you that pouring the stuff on yourself is very different than it being used in motor fuel, then you have no business discussing this topic.
@@naomiskilling1093 You are the one who needs to be brought up to speed, kid. They didn't understand the full scope of lead issues at the time. They just knew it was toxic. Lots things are toxic when mishandle them. As just one example, pour modern gasoline all over yourself and inhale deeply. Not as bad as TEL, but not such a smart idea either? But it's fine as a fuel.
Here, yet again, we have corporate greed at the heart of the matter. Same is true of radium, arsenic, tobacco, fossil fuels just to name a few. Poor bloke hoist by his own petard so to speak. Way to go Henry.
My parents had a booklet about names for babies, from the 1950s. The booklet was put out by the Ethyl corporation, and it insisted that Ethel is not a name for babies. I wonder how my parents would have named my brother, if instead they had a booklet put out by Stanley tools...
He had no way of knowing that his inventions would be so disastrous for the environment. It's a bit like radioactivity, which wasn't understood to be harmful until years after it was discovered. We know more now, about ecology and how substances behave in the environment, and about the fundamental science of biology, but it's possible that some modern invention could be equally disastrous.
His health was literally wrecked as a direct result of it... God the plebes are hopeless. You are wrong about radiation as well. Scientists knew it was dangerous, some anyway. Curie worked with it knowing this for humanitarian reasons. She was a hero. Others not so much... Some people almost always know about these things, but when that openminded, intelligent minority try to warn the herd, the herd and its masters have them silenced (just like with the ozone layer). Then after you silence us, you memory hole the dissent and pretend 'no one knew.' Can't wait until I have to hear 10 years from now how 'no one knew there was a lableak', 'no one knew the NHS was funding gain of function research' and 'no one knew mRNA vaccines were dangerous.' I'm working on the sigh I'm going to emit at that point in time. It needs to be loud, prolonged and absolutely saturated with contempt for baseline humanity. As a result I need to spend at least 8 hours a day doing diaphragm exercises. Oh speak of the devil, it's time for another workout session.
"The Tragedy of Thomas Midgley" would be an equally apt title: his popular and successful efforts to solve two commonplace problems may have caused bigger problems instead, and tarnished his memory in the process.
We need to be careful not to blame Midgley for things outside his control... this is a lesson in consumer-driven demand, unchecked corporatisation & the importance of regulation. Because people invent solutions to problems every day... it's outside analysis & impartial oversight that's key to identifying & mitigating risks. Freon became such a destructive product because its use was unchecked & it became central to products in high consumer demand... just like we're doing with lithium & rare metals in the 2020's. It seems that this is a lesson we humans are stubbornly determined to never learn from.
Nope, Midgley heavily promoted his works and inventions and would claim on numerous public appearances that Lead was harmless, ever since his early years at General Motors. Again, in the form of hindsight-fueled poetic justice, he was hanged by his own invention. A man's ego is always his biggest physical and mental weakness. The lead he consumed made him even worse.
This was a great video! When I read the title I was like "Inventions? This is probably about an inventor that died or killed people with his inventions"... I was SOOOO RIGHT but in a way I NEVER EVER expected. It is so interesting and frightening how ONE person created TWO very dangerous things that REALLY TOOK OFF and can't be "uninvented"... meaning that people will keep using them, even if we try to regulate them. 😢. That's why this story is FASCINATING HORROR. Well done.
I do have a developmental disorder which might be caused by lead poisoning. But fair play to the guy, he was prepared to consume his own poisons so I guess he really believed in his products. What's really impressive is how we were able to replace leaded petrol and CFCs so efficiently. Now if only we could do something about climate change...
I wonder, in a purely hypothetical sense, if given the chance to speak from beyond the grave, how Midgley would feel about the devastating long term effects of his inventions. His untimely demise prevented him from seeing it first hand. Would he still have pride in the advances that his inventions help foster (even if those advances were partly to quell his inventions) or would he complete denounce them for their immeasurable damages. Midgely was no despot, not a tyrant by any means, he was just a mere chemical engineer with a passion to improve the world. But he ironically did so much damage in that pursuit, that his impact could be comparable to one. I hope, wherever Midgely is, he has come to peace with his mistakes.
Easy to say after the facts, at the time they were huge technological innovations. If anyone was to blame, as usual, it's the huge companies trying to hide actual ingredients of their products to maximize profits.
He said his inventions were safe and knowingly poisoned himself on more than one occasion to convince people his breakthroughs were safe. He knew people would get sick and he did nothing about it. In fact he continued to make poisonous inventions and lie about them to his own and the world's detriment. Rather than find safer solutions, he wanted to get rich quick and to hell with other people and their health. The world operated unknowingly on his lies. Not the type of person you look up to.
Yeah, I'd like to have seen his reaction to "Freon would've made Earth uninhabitable if we kept using it". There's been some really disastrous inventions, but "makes Earth uninhabitable" is pretty next level.
I really enjoy your channel, and if I could make a suggestion, the French disaster of the 1970 Cinq-Sept Club fire might be of interest for you. It is the most important fire-related accident that ever occured in France yet it is not well known because Charles de Gaulle died the following day. A lot of fire regulations derive from the trials and I find that topic very fitting for your channel.
I feel for inventors who create something they didn't know would be horrible. But this guy... The dangers were known during his time. There are no excuses
Sadly, it seems that he missed out on the asbestos fad that was sweeping the nation. But seriously, inventors are great and he was a sign of the times... no one really knew any better.
Irony here: Midgley HATED asbestos, and was convinced that it was very dangerous. So I doubt whether he'd jump on the bandwagon, seeing as he hated it so much. So, I guess a stopped clock is right twice a day....😉
Unfortunately, they did. Several scientists rose to try and stop ethyl (which is why he was so risky with those demonstrations) but it was for naught. Rather than physics and chemistry, it was the society that had to evolve for it all to be stopped. To put things into perspective, scientists knew for centuries how dangerous lead was and recorded these aftereffects. But when most of world's population is still uneducated, you can make everything look safe.
“No one knew better” is just an excuse for ignorance. Ignorance of the rules does not excuse the crime. They also knew fully that there could be environment damage done by last concentrations of chemicals in many circumstances, but in his case they chose to ignore it in order to make money .
Me - oh hey I know some folks who'll think it's neat he's from the Beaver Falls area! Then me - oh right, the channel I'm on.... Thank you for sharing these stories. I always look forward to your videos
The cash register company in Dayton, Ohio was National Cash Register. I loved about 40 minutes from Dayton for 30 years. The Pattersons founded it and did quite a bit for the surrounding community. You should do a video on the Great Dayton Flood. I think it was around 1913. In the 1970s and 80s people renovating old houses near the river found river mud from the flood dried into the interior of their walls.
I know this is an old comment, but yes!! I'm a native Daytonian. I live in one of the neighborhoods that was built following the flood after the well-off folks that lost their downtown homes moved up the hill. (Thus the name "Dayton View" - the hill we sit on provides an amazing view of downtown) And yes, the flood was in 1913. My house was built around 1916-1917. After we bought this house I started doing a lot of research about the history of downtown and learned a lot about the flood. There's an excellent book about it called "A Time of Terror" that is available to read free online.
Let's face it, he was clearly showing signs of madness, which is one of the first symptoms of lead poisoning. (Yes, I am stealing this joke from Gary Brannan in the episode of Citation Needed based on this guy.)
So this is one of the guys who is responsible for the technology that lets me stay cool inside when the temperature and humidity are racing for the triple digits? Respect.
I just read an article today that in Portland, Oregon the air conditioners they were handing out to people in public housing weren't that effective in preventing deaths during heat waves. The people couldn't afford the electricity to run them, and/or lived in concrete towers that retained the heat, rendering the air conditioners less effective.
Exactly. There is always someone predicting something. For every issues, there will be people that get it right in the long run and some people who get it wrong. That's just how the world works.
it’s actually fascinating that to combat spark knock/pinging now, we use ethanol and methanol as fuel additives. (methanol does require special fuel lines and it’s mostly used for race/drag cars)
Modern engines really are excellent. The emissions are lower and cleaner than ever before - I remember reading that it would have taken 26 of the 2001 model Ford Fiesta to match the emissions of a single 1978 launch model. It is now almost impossible to kill yourself with car exhaust like people used to do, because the carbon monoxide is gone. The fuel economy is out of this world compared even to 25 years ago - a modern Bentley gets a higher mpg than some typical family cars from the late 1970s. Really amazing little engines like the Ford EcoBoost are also putting out more power while doing less work. I remember older cars from the late 1980s and into the 1990s. They stank of acrid hot oil while running and the performance was mostly absolute crap.
Tetraethyl lead is still used in aviation gasoline. 100 octane, low lead fuel is used because in aviation, engine failure often leads to injury or death. Cars don’t use it because environmental protection is placed higher on the priority list than vehicle longevity, and because adjustable timing has countered the knocking problem. There is currently work being done to find a safe replacement for leaded avgas, but it’s difficult to find an additive that functions as well as lead. I’m sure the concentration is lower in avgas (hence “low lead”), and small aircraft are much fewer than cars, so the effects aren’t nearly as critical as they would have been back then. However, the trend in industry these days is to switch away from hazardous chemicals to more “eco friendly” chemicals… which also don’t work as well, often requiring them to be used in higher quantities, at the expense of safety, longevity and efficiency. People don’t realize that there are trade-offs, and they will be paying more and waiting more if they want products that are “environmentally safe”.
It's interesting to hear the precursor to the adventures of Dr. Clair Patterson, who fought against walls of opposition to convince everyone that putting lead in everything was a terrible idea.
Kinda scary how much damage can be caused unintentionally by one man. Like who knows If something being created and popularized right now may lead to unforeseeable consequences.
When some guy in a suit tries to sell you on the next new thing, remember stories like these. Everything doesn't always go this way. But if it seems too good to be true then maybe it is.
Leaded fuel is still being used. 100LL (100 octane low lead) is still in use for aircraft. It is allowed a max of 0.56g of lead per liter of fuel which is multiple times higher than Automotive TEL from the 70s onward. Also appearently, Midgley did find that ethanol could be used for octane booster but they couldn't (or didn't believe they could) produce it in a practical manner at the time. There are plans to start phasing it out this decade
I was expecting him to be secretly murdered in a horrible way but this was a much bigger horror than just himself. This was world wide destruction. I liked this change
We had an alternative to Ethyl. In 1932 the first *gasohol* came to market. Developed at Iowa State College, the 90/10 gasoline/ethanol blend proved nearly as effective in antiknock properties as tetraethyl-lead gas, without the danger of lead poisoning or lead pollution. Among gasohol's proponents was Earl Coryell, who operated filling stations out of Lincoln, NE. Coryell interested Nebraska state officials in the fuel, which would have opened up a new market for depression-plagued corn farmers. However, the Ethyl Corporation, co-owned by GM and Esso, quickly moved to influence state legislatures to ban the use of _any_ alcohol in motor fuels. In 1936, Earl Coryell was party to an antitrust suit filed against Ethyl in the US Supreme Court. The court ruled in Ethyl's favor in 1940, assuring that gasohol would never gain a competitive foothold. Gasohol then disappeared until the global oil crisis and environmental concerns arose in the 1970s.
Considering he had experienced the effects of lead poisoning firsthand and seen others around him die from it and yet STILL vouched for the use of leaded fuel, I can’t say I have too much sympathy for the guy.
Bravo! My fam was the head chemical engineer at Amoco and worked on these projects. Accurate. Please take notice that violence in US society tracks directly with the proliferation/de-proliferation of leaded gasoline, etc. It’s a 15-20 year lag but tracks very closely.
I kinda feel like this one was a bit of a miss. On one hand, I guess but that could be applied to the person(s) who invented pesticides too. He did the absolute best with the information he had at the time and there was absolutely no way he could have known about those kind of long term effects. One could even argue that refrigeration (which still uses Freon btw) saved many more lives than it ever hurt. The ability to keep and ship food, store organs and blood, even stabilize medicine like insulin would have been impossible. With the ozone thing; there are speculations that the ozone layer actually cycles in thickness over time in correlation with the suns radiation output and that the thinning didn't actually have anything to do with Freon. Right now the sun is experiencing a grand solar minimum, where it's basically putting off considerably less radiation than normal (though we likely wont see those effects for a while). It's one of those things that we have only just begun to be able to measure and with no solid track records we have literally very little idea what the real cycles of a billions year old planet really go though.
I like the different approach you took with this one. Not a disaster in the usual sense, but one where the effects only became apparent decades later.
"Unintended consequences". Just like the politically forced "green" energy, instead of letting it occur organically and naturally.
i was absolutely thinking the same thing
I remember as a teenager there was still bottles of lead additive for older gas engines in gas stations & auto part stores. Doesn’t seem that long ago.
Yes, and it's also arguably far worse than in impact and scope than any disaster he's covered so far!
@@aaronburratwood.6957 - I remember leaded gasoline, but i'm old (50's).
I already knew about this guy, but it still blows my mind that 1 guy created 2 things that both enabled humankind to reach such high potentials but also were 2 of the single most destructive inventions the world has ever known. If that's not representative of the ability of both the power and responsibility that humans have over the planet then nothing is
Never heard of him, how I don’t know. They guy was a walking, inventing menace.
Fritz Haber, Prussian Chemist. Invented artificial fertilizer, allowing farms the world over to immensely boost their production and thus feed a LOT more people. Also invented the first Toxic Gas and the basics of chemical Warfare in World War one.
Most destructive? Idk about that. Think that title still goes to atomic bombs. Everyone likes to blame gas and fossil fuels go destroying the atmosphere. No one ever talks about how much damage all of our and USSR’s nuclear testing did during the Cold War.
@@Lawrence_Talbot -- I would contend that the most destructive invention of all time is gunpowder.
A real nasty situation where there's money to be made.
This reminds me of some of the radiation incidents in history where the effects aren't felt or understood until it is too late
so many involve recent inventions that are barely understood, even by the inventor
@@mr_dillus that's why nuclear power cracks me up. We're splitting atoms to heat water to turn a turbine, not directly harnessing the radiation and thermal energy. And ppl think we're going to solve fusion energy soon, laughable
@@mr_dillusI wonder how long before we all find out that recent safe and effective technologies were anything but
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
- Albert Einstein
@Ned Flanders ....one of the few. Licking paintbrushes with radium so they had a finer point 🤢
Ah, Thomas, my old friend. I wrote my undergraduate thesis in history on Midgley, years ago. One of the things that turned up in my research was that a number of Midgley's contemporaries, including members of his family, believed his death was not accidental, but a carefully engineered suicide prompted by despair over his condition. (Not, as some have speculated since, remorse over his inventions. There's no evidence he ever saw lead as anything other than a necessary evil, and no one on Earth had the slightest idea CFCs were anything but a harmless miracle until decades after his death.)
As an aside, the beneficial aspects of leaded gasoline during Midgley's lifetime weren't only economic. TEL led (as it were) to the development of high-octane fuel, particularly for aviation use, by American oil companies, which gave aircraft on the Allied side of World War II enormous performance advantages over their opponents. For example, the average octane rating of the gasoline German fighters had to settle for was about 65, as opposed to 100 or more for the RAF and U.S. Army Air Forces fighters they were up against after 1941. (By comparison, even the lowliest pump gas sold in the US today is in the mid-80s.)
I agree on the suicide, that's what came to mind.
Literally engineered
I'm glad you added this. He was a genius inventor for sure
Never knew that fact about octane levels during WW2. That may have been the edge we needed to be victorious. Thank you for those interesting facts!
Thank you so much for sharing this information as an addition to this video! It is fascinating, informative, and relevant to this very day. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Left out my favorite part of the tetra ethol lead story - Charles Norris (the first medical examiner in the us) saw the harm it caused (he was brought in on the employee deaths by the state of New Jersey), and tried to lobby against it. He demonstrated the effects of lead in the bodies he received, but general motors launched their campaign anyway.
But it was later shown that nothing was as deadly as Chuck Norris.
As you're describing him inhaling the freon, out loud I yelled " No dude! NOOO!"
It's the best way to get that *minty-fresh* breath.
This was a wild ride from start to finish!
I had no idea that the same guy who put lead in gasoline and invented Freon also invented the first Hoyer lift (the lift that gets you from your wheelchair to your bed or vice versa) and not only that but died in his own invention after having testing everything on himself for years.
Just wild! Thank you for the excellent content once again! I love this stuff!
Plot twist: he tried (and succeeded in) inventing the slowest suicide method.
@@eustab.anas-mann9510 Well, if his family was correct that he died by suicide, then he was probably creating a plausibly accidental death -- suicide is still stigmatized, but the stigma used to be much worse then.
Seriously you’re one of the best to do it on UA-cam. We’re not just gassing you up. The quality is immense and the passion is felt.
I feel the same. Superb content.
Complete with the most hardcore trappin beat of all time
Was that unleaded or leaded gassing up?
@@Pewnhound112 yesssss
Not just gassing you up this video was in the stratosphere near the ozone. Didn’t leave me hanging for sure.
He should have been honest about getting sick from lead poisoning when he took a “break” in Florida.
He probably didn't associate his deteriorating health to his invention testing. The fact that he experimented on himself demonstrates that he had genuine faith in the innocuous character if his inventions.
@@nozoto Regardless, he got sick after trying to prove tetra ethyl lead doesn’t get you sick. He chose not to say anything. They knew the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. It’s hubris that made him think it wasn’t his demonstration moments prior.
@@jamesc8259
He didn't know that terta ethyl lead was making him sick. And he wasn't getting sick moments after his demonstrations. Heavy metal poisoning is a slow killer, as it takes time for them to build up to toxic levels in your system. Mercury, for example, in miniscule amounts, is perfectly harmless. But a lifetime of exposure can be fatal. It wasn't like he took a breath of TEL and minutes later went running off to Florida.
@@jfangm I’ve read his story. He did know, he was even warned about lead poisoning from TEL in 1922. He was DIAGNOSED with lead poisoning. He was fired of his position as Vice President of GMCC in April 1925.
@@jamesc8259
He was warned about the dangers. That does not mean he knew it was TEL that did it. He believed it was harmless. Stop using hindsight and actually look at the matter from HIS perspective.
It's so amazing to me, with how volatile everything is these days, that the world was able to apparently come together for once and reign in CFC use
I often think about that, how back then the people in power listened to scientists and took action swiftly to address the issue. I fear that Social Media and weaponized ignorance will be our downfall
@@TheHalo14aus did you miss the part where scientists were ignored for saying cfcs were destroying the ozone layer
The difference was that only manufacturers were forced to change anything, and only a relatively small change at that. Their was no change for the public - the different propellant in their deodorant made no difference. The public did not have to change their ways or confront themselves and ask if they should adapt to the new or double down on the old and continue as normal.
Much the same with switching from leaded to unleaded fuel, you just used a different pump from the same gas station.
No one was asked to not use aerosols or to switch to an entirely different form of energy technology to power their new car.
This made it easy for politicians to listen to the scientists and legislate new standards without it costing them votes.
Rein
In California a chemical by the name “MTMB” was added to gasoline.
It was in the fuel for about four years and they never added it again.
Shortly after the additive was abandoned news reports started talking about autism.
This was in the early ‘90’s.
Bruh was like: “Hey look if a small dosage of the substance doesn’t instantly kill me it’s completely safe”
I remember a prof who knew Prof Rowland and grimly recounted how much groups and orgs tried to discredit not only the research but Rowland himself. It was disquieting how haunted our Prof looked and his conviction sharing how much people need to push to see data make the difference it can
I was a student living in the dorms at UC Irvine when the discovery that Freon was a problem came out. A local radio station broadcast an editorial lambasting the discovery, and suggesting that rotten tomatoes be thrown at UCI. As an English major and resident who had nothing to do with that research, I was offended by the suggestion of vandalism, even though I, too, was skeptical of the research findings at first. If it had happened these days, quite possibly a bunch of people would indeed show up and start vandalizing the campus with tomatoes and other stuff.
@@EXROBOWIDOW It wouldn't be tomatoes, it would be firearms.
I'm not surprised. Capitalism in all its disgusting glory and all.
Midgley: "I've created an additive to fuel which drastically reduces engine knocking!"
Gas companies: "Oh, sweet!"
Midgley: "Technically...correct."
"The best kind of correct."
Lol, nice one... Man, how do we so stupidly stumble the same general direction as the fall of Rome. Must be a default human idiot mode setting🙄
sweet... lead acetate
@@gohawks3571 Hey, some have wondered if lead pipes and cups contributed to mental issues in ancient Rome which ultimately led to its fall. The ancient Greeks knew about lead's poisonous qualities.
@PlasmaStorm73 [N5EVV] Touché😁
The fact that he died the way he died after inventing these things is wildest metaphor brought to life that I have ever heard
Reality sometimes is stranger (and more ironic) than fiction...
I feel some justice was served, even if he could not see how apt his ending was.
The wild thing to me is that he somehow believed his lift was an easier way to do things than just asking for help when he needed it. Like, if that isn't a metaphor I don't know what is.
@@stevencooke6451 Justice? He believed his inventions would improve the lives of millions or even billions of people. There was no ill intent on his part.
You know it's going to be weird when the disaster du jour is a person....
😂😂
Already is, Joe Biden.
@@gregggoss2210 Can't stand Sleepy Joe myself, but political statements unrelated to the subject at hand are uncalled for.
@mournblade1066 ,just ignore me then and I'll go away. Pretty simple.
@@gregggoss2210 No you won't, you're still here 8 hours later
There's a quote about this guy that I love: "Midgley possessed an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny".
It's actually on his Wikipedia page, IIRC.
"...seeking fuel additive that reduce or eliminate engine knocking"
Me : "Oh no...He's the guy to put lead in the fuel...right?
[later]
"Midgley was given a new problem to work on : refirgeration."
Me : "Not the CFC, right?"
I certainly wasn't expecting the inventor of both to be the same person.
Lemme guess, he invented DDT too...jk
"Strangled to death by his own creation" - A brilliant metaphor for the environmental disaster he unwittingly wrought.
I'm sure he knew that lead was toxic he just played along for the fossil fuel industry so they and he got more money
If he hadn't died immediately from that invention and had gotten the time to patent it, potentially hundreds more could have met the same fate with his commercialized deathtrap.
@@drakkenmensch I agree. The man certainly had a knack for creating things that could kill a large number of people!
@@drakkenmensch The difficulty of a hoist isn't the harness, it is all the other bits. Harnesses can be dangerous for those who might have a fit, or have mental conditions that might make them struggle, but otherwise they are safe (and hard to make them otherwise). So it is most likely that he committed suicide whilst making it look like an accident. Remember there was still a huge taboo against suicide in those days.
Poetic justice.
"He discovered you could add lead..." Uh-oh.
"...he was able to create freon..." Oh, no...
"It was his own invention that killed him..." Uuuugggghhh...
It was like his whole life was a slow-motion train wreck. A creative inventor, cursed to discover the most destructive in the long-term solutions to problems facing mankind at the moment.
I genuinely feel bad for him.
Dude deserves a movie.
I think it's interesting to hear a story about a guy who wasn't making these decisions and inventing out of greed, corruption, negligence or anything like that, but genuinely trying and wanting to do good. And his creations worked to solve the problems of the time, supported by the science of the time. It doesn't seem like there was a malicious intent about any of it (though conveniently going to a clean open air environment after feeling the effects of lead poisoning was a laugh).
I wonder how he'd react innuendo what we know now, and how his inventions changed humanity.
I'm not sure that going to a clean air environment would do much to reverse lead poisoning. Especially since the leaded fuel made airborne lead the problem. I didn't realize they made sure to push all the lead out the tailpipe, instead of letting it stay in the engine.
Nah, they knew lead was bad at the time.
@@EXROBOWIDOW They didn't necessarily need to push it out the tailpipe, but unlike most of the other emissions, it's an element, so your only real option is to either push it out the tailpipe, or find some way of trapping it. It's not like CO, O3 or NO2 that are problematic as chemicals, but the individual elements aren't of any real consequence and they are the result of chemical reactions going on in the engine.
I knew there’d be a comment like this. He was incredibly arrogant about his inventions and how safe they were. People were getting sick from the lead in the factories and he went out of his way to try and convince people it was safe even though it made him sick as well. You think someone like that was being altruistic or just didn’t know? You’re being naive. He knew lead wasn’t safe, he just didn’t want that to interfere with his fame, praise, and money.
As far as the CFCs, again the arrogance is astounding. He proclaimed it safe without actually knowing whether it was safe or not because the guy was an engineer, not a chemist. He used chemical combinations that solved the problem at hand and didn’t immediately kill people and considered his job finished.
@@Idontwantone950Since the start of the Enlightenment every generation has had more knowledge than the last. In 1920 people only knew of acute toxicity, not chronic. To label everyone who thought lead, asbestos, radium, cigarette smoke, DDT, frepn, mercury, etc. were safe 'Arrogant' is unfair. Which of your present beliefs will we learn are incorrect 20 years from now?
This is possibly the best story you’ve done. Fantastic job, my guy.
That healing ozone layer is the best news I’ve heard in I don’t know how long. Thank you for that.
The date usually reserved for the disaster in your videos was just this guy's birthday. Brutal.
He was the embodiment of the phrase, "The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions."
No. The saying was not meant for people like Migley.
Right. That phrase is more suited to anyone who believes psychiatry is "help".
@@LiterallyCensoredDailyYour comment really intrrigued. Please do elaborate....
@@LiterallyCensoredDailywhat lol? are you implying psychiatrists don't help people?
Always wondered about why it was called unleaded fuel. Interesting how some places still use that term long after leaded gas was banned.
Right? Reminds me of "Classic Coke". Like, it's been 40 years, we know it's not the one you tried for like a month that everyone hated.
Leaded fuel is dead worldwide as of 2021. It's no longer manufactured anywhere and every single country on Earth has either banned its use or are forcibly phasing it out. North Korea banned leaded fuel in 2016.
Leaded gas isn't completely gone, but its use in on-road passenger vehicles is banned, and the invention of the catalytic converter helped get that passed since catalytic converters remove the need for leaded fuel. High-octane leaded fuel is still produced for and used by certain racing cars, aircrafts, and some farming equipment.
@@queenspikes2521 Cat's don't remove the need for leaded fuel. They are incompatible with lead fuel. There is a difference.
@@queenspikes2521 Although described as leaded, the modern fuels use a compound of potassium as the antiknock ingredient.
It was by changing the valve and piston ring steel hardness that allowed vehicles to run on unleaded fuel. Change to compression ratio and ignition timing were also needed.
As a young journalist, I found data about kids' blood lead levels in a certain kindergarten in Helsinki. At that time the levels were already ok (thank you, catalytic coneverters and unleaded gas!) but the old data was really horryfying. The kindergarten was situated next to a really busy street, that's why the kids' health had been studied for many years. I really wonder how much this actually had affected the kids in earlier years.
First heard of Thomas Midgley from the show Dark Matters twisted but true. That is such a good show please bring it back and please release every season!
It’s always interesting when we, as a people, discover that some of our most helpful inventions are harming us while they are helping us. DuPont has had a few products like that, but so have many large companies. It’s always the devil you don’t know that gets you in the end. A scientist would say it’s; “The law of unintended consequences”, and for the most part that’s true. As you said in the video “Scientists began to be able to measure our world more accurately”. It’s usually when we take a closer look that we discover what we didn’t notice all along, such as the cancer rate being 10 times higher in a town that makes the weed killer “Roundup”. Or shipbuilders having about a 300% higher chance of getting mesothelioma. Sometimes we just aren’t aware of what’s going on right under our own noses….
*Fritz Haber has entered the chat*
Discover? Even 100 years ago people understood that lead was harmful, he suffered from lead poisoning after his little experiment to prove that leaded petrol was safe. I guess advertising/PR was the social media of the era...
@@MultiMidden For real. Even the young EPA at the time was like, 'o god no, don't do this shit!' But our gov was like, 'mmm, well, money.'
except for the fact companies like dupont still produced and advocated for use of chemicals that they knew where causing harm
@@thefaultinourpizza1513 The fact they still make leaded gas for small planes and farm equipment says alot.
"The first practical vapor compression refrigeration system was built by James Harrison, a Scottish Australian. His 1856 patent was for a vapor compression system using ether, alcohol or ammonia. He built a mechanical ice-making machine in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Victoria, and his first commercial ice-making machine followed in 1854. Harrison also introduced commercial vapor-compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861, a dozen of his systems were in operation."
Leas, Freon - makes me wonder how so many of us “older” people are still alive😯😯. I remember when we could buy Freon to recharge the a/c in our cars! I know I bought some and had a friend (who knew how to do it) do the recharging of my a/c in my car!
@@sandybruce9092 My dad had bought an old freezer case (1930s or 1940s-era) from a grocery store and had it stored in the basement. He was working on it one night when he nicked a coil, releasing the Freon. He got us up and ordered us out of the house (fortunately, it was summer) in our pajamas until he could ventilate the basement. CORRECTION: On second thought, the gas was probably ammonia, not Freon. My bad.
@@Gail1Marie we had no idea back in the 70s that Freon was dangerous - we could buy it at most automotive stores for a very reasonable amount!😄.
@@sandybruce9092 Oops, I messed up. It was possibly ammonia, not Freon. My bad!
@@sandybruce9092 My bad--given the time period, it was probably ammonia, not Freon. Good catch (I've amended my original comment).
This was such a dope video!!! More of this! The unintended consequences of actions are so curious & interesting!
The sheer irony of Midgely convincing the public that leaded fuel was safe *while* suffering from lead poisoning is unbelievable to me. On the other hand, without his inventions I have no doubt that we would not be where we are today technologically.
I'm just glad we caught on to the effects before the damage was irreparable.
Had one newspaper reporter known he was golfing while suffering from lead poisoning, things may have changed much sooner.
@@abnerdoon4902 Wholeheartedly agree. And I'm sure he never meant for any of the ill effects to happen.
Sadly, lead poisoning sneaks up on you and is hard to catch. And I agree, without refrigeration we would have been in a very different situation today. And the lift that wound up killing him has been perfected too and is a great help to many thousands. The man genuinely tried to make the world better for everyone and largely succeeded.
"On the other hand".
OTOH we'd be in a world with 30 years left for us to enjoy. Even leaded fuel was clearly a danger as soon as it was created.
The depletion of the Ozone layer was definitely an unknown side effect of Freon, but the dangers of lead were known when Midgley created leaded fuel and purposely made massive quantities of it be dumped all over cities. Soon after, he even had firsthand experience of it but didn't change course. This is why he was a villain and a warning for how science can be corrupted by selfishness.
It blows my mind that lead in drinking water isn't addressed more quickly (I'm looking at you Flint Michigan)
This. The presenter makes it sound like literally no one knew while simultaneously explaining how there was backlash from both the public and scientists and who corpos used their unconstitutional power over speech to silence. Sometimes I wonder if the people who make these videos and see the same corporate lizards mass murder people for profit over and over and over and over will ever wake up as I did to the real enemy of our civilization. Put them all into rocket. Write on rocket the name of every innocent murdered in the name of profit since the industrial revolution. Rocket into sun.
@@k33k32 - fluoride is more toxic yet added to the water supply, and no-one says anything?
@@ryszard68 Concentration makes a giant difference in toxicity level. The amount of fluoride added to municipal drinking water is usually around .7 miligrams per liter. If you are worried about your local water, please get it tested.
@@k33k32 It is nothing short of criminal how Flint's poisonous water went unaddressed for so long. And indeed a number of government officials were charged with crimes related to their failures. Absolutely tragic how many children's lives and potential have been damaged by it.
The older I get the more I believe that lawyers who try to prevent exposure of public health risks should be imprisoned when those risks are found to be true. It would make then think twice before chucking threatening letters around.
I feel the same about letting serious offenders out of prison early. If they re-offend then those who let them out should get the same sentence. That would make them think twice and care a dam.
@@mobilephil244Create a redemptive model of incarceration, instead of the retributive revenge model we as Americans now embrace, and you might see some progress. But we good, God fearing folk really love the never forgive and punishment lasts forever mindset. Cause Biblical God loved it so.
One technical note: the refrigerator being advertised in a very short film clip herein was a Servel gas-powered unit. The Servel had its own problems, but Freon refrigerant wasn't one of them: the absorption refrigeration cycle uses ammonia for the purpose.
I've seen old refrigerators with motors on top of them.
Absorption fridges lasted forever. but they were not energy efficient, with a COP of less than 1.
The process was originally designed for industry, providing cooling from the waste heat from steam turbines.
This was a great documentary - same great attention to detail and accuracy, but slightly different content. Keep up the great work!!! 👍👍👍
You should definitely do a story on Ray Brent Marsh who ran the Tri State crematory in Noble, Georgia U.S.A. his nefarious deeds were discovered in 2002. They found over 300 bodies on his property. Would make a great story for your channel.
I heard about that, bodies stacked in his roof spaces. If i remember rightly his ovens broke and he just never got them fixed as it was making more money not burning them. I live in England
The same group of studies that found these chemicals where damaging the environment, also found the dangers of oil and gas refinement and burning, among many other toxins and pollutants. However the petrochem industry at the time either didn't care, or made sure to bury the information.
And still don't care. Money money money
This is true but it gets worse. The first studies of fossil fuel emissions were commissioned by oil companies in the 1950s. The scientists were silenced by coercion, bribery, and occasionally assassination. The fossil fuel industry has known about the disaster they are causing for 70+ years and still try to minimize the perception of their impact with "clean coal" and such nonsense. They do not care and will not stop unless forced to.
Buried it, as deep as money and threats could run.
"At the time" implies they give a shit now
Yet without petrochemical industries we'd have had no commercial aircraft, almost no private cars and haulage etc
Think about it. Global shipping would be by sail - because steam also required fossil fuels, unpredictable, unreliable, and unsafe (by tonnages shipping became safer, more reliable and cheaper once fossil fuels were used). The huge economies of recent history would not exist, the or would be technologically backwards...
It's also naive to think that because Europe and the USA didn't use petrochemicals, that other non European aligned countries would not adopt them too.
I'll tell you this, the generations that are going to be more affected by climate change, are the ones more dependent on the contributing technologies. Older generations got used to reusing what they had or making do. It's not the elderly people replacing smartphones every six months to a year, having up to four holidays abroad a year, going abroad for stag and hen weekends, having to have a new car on finance...if technology ended today, it's not the pensioners that will be crying and unable to cope lol
Midgley's name rang a bell with me, but I couldn't place it until engine knocking was mentioned. Then I remembered. I wasn't aware however that he was also the inventor of Freon, that was a revelation to me.
Another wonderful video FH, cheers 👍
This guy was the definition of "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should."
Soooo like the Clot Shot makers...
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht No, like the people who make up retarded conspiracy theories about vaccines.
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht 🤡
@@ladela7348 "died suddenly"
Lol over thousands of healthy, by all standards, athletes dropped dead, mostly on field, post-jabby, in a year.
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht I know several people - young and old - who have had four or five jabs. One has died, and that was because he was in his mid nineties and was ill beforehand, with zero complications from the vaccine.
If you're curious, the cash register company that Midgley worked for was National Cash Register, later renamed officially to its acronym, NCR.
It's so tragic that his inventions seemingly were so brilliant but also a massive source of harm
now we know ? freon😢🎉😂
@@paulcampbell25 I'll oo
Hawt
Define "massive harm". Automobiles have killed millions, yet they are essential to modern society. Imagine how many beneficial things would disappear without them. Same can be said for TEL and Freon.
@@sebclot9478 it's true. Same can be said for countless things throughout history no doubt.
Several other UA-camrs have made excellent videos on this same topic, but it bears repeating. A cautionary tale that we would do well to remember today.
Lead was in widespread use in the 20th Century: the legacy of lead pipes ( still a problem in parts of the USA), lead paint & toys as well as leaded fuel ( which also boosted the octane of gasoline. There was a star rating in use 2⭐ for motorbikes & outboard engines, 4⭐ for most cars but once lead was removed 5⭐ for high performance engines was no longer produced).
china secret to tea was lead. china made toys have lead.
lead pipes fyi are actually fairly safe if one doesn't use corrosive water
Yes I remember 2 star and 4 star petrol in the UK in the late 70's/early 80's. My Dad used to mostly use 2 star in his old car, but would occasionally 'treat' it to some 4 star :)
Old lead plumbing is safe because it developes a coating from the water that keeps the lead in. Its only new lead plumbing that is dangerous.
Yup glad you mentioned the pipes and paint. Lead has been used in so many things people don’t realize. Used to be used a lot in medical tools and devices. Used to be used in internal structures not just paints. Used to be used a lot in toys too. So it’s hard to solely blame lead fuel for destroying the planet or increase in. Yes it’s a factor, but given there’s lead in so many others things like pipes where it leaks into the water supply, or old paints, toys, buildings, etc that get burned or thrown into land fills which seep down into the ground, it’s no shock there’s lead everywhere.
@@pheart2381 That is true up to a point. In Flint Michigan the water source changed & was more acid, that stripped the oxide coating from the pipes.
I was way more interested listening than I thought I'd be on this topic. Excellent video.
I really enjoy your content, thanks for making it
They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should
While you sit here today enjoying their technological benefits.
Hero one day, Villain the next. The scary thing is, what would he have thought of next? Great Video! 😁
Apparently he retired in Wuhan...not sure what he got up to 🤷♂
And who/what are today's equivalents? As we wouldn't know except retroactively.
I'm glad he got to die without knowing what he had unintentionally caused!
@@nthgth I suspect when Terminator becomes reality the robots will be making documentaries about Open AI and how it was the equivalent of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs...
"what would he have thought of next? " Probably work for a beauty company and come up with something with a scientifc name, such as bihydro pro-betazone B19 revitilising serum.
Which was based on arsenic.
in 1786, Benjamin Franklin wrote that the dangerous effects of lead had already been known for at least 60 years, he continues 'you will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practised on'.
Great video .
With only stating the facts and not giving out personal opinions on the subject that would often end in controversy with some people.
This story is insane! It reminds me of the collyer brothers. Both intelligent men who died by the mess of their own intention
True but the Collyer Brothers were insular and selfish with zero desire to help anybody or anything!
I'm fairly new to your channel, and I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your work. Thank you .
‘fascinating horror’ is fantastic!
i love it…
very well done…
Thank you! I've learned a lot from your narrative reports.
Regardless of the content, I thoroughly appreciate your measured recounting of the incidents you feature. No rushed narratives. Also the meticulous detail you include is amazing. Such a lot of work, thank you.
You'd think that he'd realise that perhaps lead fuel was actually dangerous when he poured it all over himself and inhaled it then had to go on a holiday for several months due to lead poisoning. The cognitive dissonance was real. AND THEN HE KILLED HIMSELF WITH HIS OWN SPECIAL CHAIR! Man was suicidally confident in himself and everyone else had to pay the price.
Just huffing fuel jacks you waaay up, so im thinking thins guy put on a good act but was litty af
If I have to explain to you that pouring the stuff on yourself is very different than it being used in motor fuel, then you have no business discussing this topic.
@@sebclot9478 Do me a favour. Look up how lead can be absorbed and cause lead poisoning.
@@naomiskilling1093 You are the one who needs to be brought up to speed, kid. They didn't understand the full scope of lead issues at the time. They just knew it was toxic. Lots things are toxic when mishandle them. As just one example, pour modern gasoline all over yourself and inhale deeply. Not as bad as TEL, but not such a smart idea either? But it's fine as a fuel.
This one was particularly informative in my opinion. I really enjoyed it! Great content as always!
Here, yet again, we have corporate greed at the heart of the matter. Same is true of radium, arsenic, tobacco, fossil fuels just to name a few.
Poor bloke hoist by his own petard so to speak. Way to go Henry.
Great episode! I'm old enough to remember Ethyl gas (and the jokes that went along with it).
Oh that’s why Gomer and Goober were so stupid…it was from pumping the gas!
Same here, guess that makes me old?
It still survives today as 110 Octane aviation fuel
My parents had a booklet about names for babies, from the 1950s. The booklet was put out by the Ethyl corporation, and it insisted that Ethel is not a name for babies. I wonder how my parents would have named my brother, if instead they had a booklet put out by Stanley tools...
He had no way of knowing that his inventions would be so disastrous for the environment. It's a bit like radioactivity, which wasn't understood to be harmful until years after it was discovered.
We know more now, about ecology and how substances behave in the environment, and about the fundamental science of biology, but it's possible that some modern invention could be equally disastrous.
His health was literally wrecked as a direct result of it... God the plebes are hopeless. You are wrong about radiation as well. Scientists knew it was dangerous, some anyway. Curie worked with it knowing this for humanitarian reasons. She was a hero. Others not so much... Some people almost always know about these things, but when that openminded, intelligent minority try to warn the herd, the herd and its masters have them silenced (just like with the ozone layer). Then after you silence us, you memory hole the dissent and pretend 'no one knew.' Can't wait until I have to hear 10 years from now how 'no one knew there was a lableak', 'no one knew the NHS was funding gain of function research' and 'no one knew mRNA vaccines were dangerous.' I'm working on the sigh I'm going to emit at that point in time. It needs to be loud, prolonged and absolutely saturated with contempt for baseline humanity. As a result I need to spend at least 8 hours a day doing diaphragm exercises. Oh speak of the devil, it's time for another workout session.
"The Tragedy of Thomas Midgley" would be an equally apt title: his popular and successful efforts to solve two commonplace problems may have caused bigger problems instead, and tarnished his memory in the process.
We need to be careful not to blame Midgley for things outside his control... this is a lesson in consumer-driven demand, unchecked corporatisation & the importance of regulation. Because people invent solutions to problems every day... it's outside analysis & impartial oversight that's key to identifying & mitigating risks. Freon became such a destructive product because its use was unchecked & it became central to products in high consumer demand... just like we're doing with lithium & rare metals in the 2020's. It seems that this is a lesson we humans are stubbornly determined to never learn from.
As usual, we overdid it.
Nope, Midgley heavily promoted his works and inventions and would claim on numerous public appearances that Lead was harmless, ever since his early years at General Motors. Again, in the form of hindsight-fueled poetic justice, he was hanged by his own invention. A man's ego is always his biggest physical and mental weakness. The lead he consumed made him even worse.
This was a great video! When I read the title I was like "Inventions? This is probably about an inventor that died or killed people with his inventions"... I was SOOOO RIGHT but in a way I NEVER EVER expected.
It is so interesting and frightening how ONE person created TWO very dangerous things that REALLY TOOK OFF and can't be "uninvented"... meaning that people will keep using them, even if we try to regulate them. 😢.
That's why this story is FASCINATING HORROR. Well done.
I do have a developmental disorder which might be caused by lead poisoning. But fair play to the guy, he was prepared to consume his own poisons so I guess he really believed in his products. What's really impressive is how we were able to replace leaded petrol and CFCs so efficiently. Now if only we could do something about climate change...
I wouldn’t necessarily call the MTBE experiment and legacy of groundwater contamination an efficient transition.
@@indowneastmaine Nor are the replacements able to produce the same octane ratings.
My late uncle Ronnie's CFC charged fridge is still working well, 43 years after it was first bought in 1980.
I wonder, in a purely hypothetical sense, if given the chance to speak from beyond the grave, how Midgley would feel about the devastating long term effects of his inventions. His untimely demise prevented him from seeing it first hand. Would he still have pride in the advances that his inventions help foster (even if those advances were partly to quell his inventions) or would he complete denounce them for their immeasurable damages.
Midgely was no despot, not a tyrant by any means, he was just a mere chemical engineer with a passion to improve the world. But he ironically did so much damage in that pursuit, that his impact could be comparable to one. I hope, wherever Midgely is, he has come to peace with his mistakes.
Imagine if he tried to convince everyone by inhaling these substances again lol
Easy to say after the facts, at the time they were huge technological innovations. If anyone was to blame, as usual, it's the huge companies trying to hide actual ingredients of their products to maximize profits.
He said his inventions were safe and knowingly poisoned himself on more than one occasion to convince people his breakthroughs were safe. He knew people would get sick and he did nothing about it. In fact he continued to make poisonous inventions and lie about them to his own and the world's detriment. Rather than find safer solutions, he wanted to get rich quick and to hell with other people and their health. The world operated unknowingly on his lies. Not the type of person you look up to.
Yeah, I'd like to have seen his reaction to "Freon would've made Earth uninhabitable if we kept using it". There's been some really disastrous inventions, but "makes Earth uninhabitable" is pretty next level.
Love being a patreon supporter. For my $1 a month, I got to see this video early and a short only patrons see. Thanks so much!
I really enjoy your channel, and if I could make a suggestion, the French disaster of the 1970 Cinq-Sept Club fire might be of interest for you.
It is the most important fire-related accident that ever occured in France yet it is not well known because Charles de Gaulle died the following day. A lot of fire regulations derive from the trials and I find that topic very fitting for your channel.
I feel for inventors who create something they didn't know would be horrible. But this guy... The dangers were known during his time. There are no excuses
To be fair, the dangers of freon were not known until much later.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
It’s weird how one singular guy could unintentionally cause so much damage to generations
I had heard of Midgley before, but didn't know his story. Excellent video, thanks for sharing.
Sadly, it seems that he missed out on the asbestos fad that was sweeping the nation. But seriously, inventors are great and he was a sign of the times... no one really knew any better.
Irony here: Midgley HATED asbestos, and was convinced that it was very dangerous. So I doubt whether he'd jump on the bandwagon, seeing as he hated it so much. So, I guess a stopped clock is right twice a day....😉
Unfortunately, they did. Several scientists rose to try and stop ethyl (which is why he was so risky with those demonstrations) but it was for naught. Rather than physics and chemistry, it was the society that had to evolve for it all to be stopped.
To put things into perspective, scientists knew for centuries how dangerous lead was and recorded these aftereffects. But when most of world's population is still uneducated, you can make everything look safe.
@@Cerylion I would hardly call this society "evolved". Devolved is more like it.
“No one knew better” is just an excuse for ignorance. Ignorance of the rules does not excuse the crime. They also knew fully that there could be environment damage done by last concentrations of chemicals in many circumstances, but in his case they chose to ignore it in order to make money .
@@mattk6910 Were you there? How tf would you know what anyone knew? Ignorance is not an excuse? Do you know the definition of ignorance.
Me - oh hey I know some folks who'll think it's neat he's from the Beaver Falls area!
Then me - oh right, the channel I'm on.... Thank you for sharing these stories. I always look forward to your videos
Self obsessed.
Scary to think about,actually terrifying.. they say treat your body as a temple, but we should also be treating our world with the same respect.
In this case, both simultaneously.
The cash register company in Dayton, Ohio was National Cash Register. I loved about 40 minutes from Dayton for 30 years. The Pattersons founded it and did quite a bit for the surrounding community. You should do a video on the Great Dayton Flood. I think it was around 1913. In the 1970s and 80s people renovating old houses near the river found river mud from the flood dried into the interior of their walls.
I know this is an old comment, but yes!! I'm a native Daytonian. I live in one of the neighborhoods that was built following the flood after the well-off folks that lost their downtown homes moved up the hill. (Thus the name "Dayton View" - the hill we sit on provides an amazing view of downtown)
And yes, the flood was in 1913. My house was built around 1916-1917. After we bought this house I started doing a lot of research about the history of downtown and learned a lot about the flood. There's an excellent book about it called "A Time of Terror" that is available to read free online.
Let's face it, he was clearly showing signs of madness, which is one of the first symptoms of lead poisoning.
(Yes, I am stealing this joke from Gary Brannan in the episode of Citation Needed based on this guy.)
Literal mad scientist.
So this is one of the guys who is responsible for the technology that lets me stay cool inside when the temperature and humidity are racing for the triple digits? Respect.
I just read an article today that in Portland, Oregon the air conditioners they were handing out to people in public housing weren't that effective in preventing deaths during heat waves. The people couldn't afford the electricity to run them, and/or lived in concrete towers that retained the heat, rendering the air conditioners less effective.
"Some scientists predicted..."
People need to stop saying this because it doesn't mean anything.
Exactly. There is always someone predicting something. For every issues, there will be people that get it right in the long run and some people who get it wrong. That's just how the world works.
it’s actually fascinating that to combat spark knock/pinging now, we use ethanol and methanol as fuel additives. (methanol does require special fuel lines and it’s mostly used for race/drag cars)
Modern engines really are excellent. The emissions are lower and cleaner than ever before - I remember reading that it would have taken 26 of the 2001 model Ford Fiesta to match the emissions of a single 1978 launch model. It is now almost impossible to kill yourself with car exhaust like people used to do, because the carbon monoxide is gone.
The fuel economy is out of this world compared even to 25 years ago - a modern Bentley gets a higher mpg than some typical family cars from the late 1970s.
Really amazing little engines like the Ford EcoBoost are also putting out more power while doing less work.
I remember older cars from the late 1980s and into the 1990s. They stank of acrid hot oil while running and the performance was mostly absolute crap.
Tetraethyl lead is still used in aviation gasoline. 100 octane, low lead fuel is used because in aviation, engine failure often leads to injury or death. Cars don’t use it because environmental protection is placed higher on the priority list than vehicle longevity, and because adjustable timing has countered the knocking problem. There is currently work being done to find a safe replacement for leaded avgas, but it’s difficult to find an additive that functions as well as lead. I’m sure the concentration is lower in avgas (hence “low lead”), and small aircraft are much fewer than cars, so the effects aren’t nearly as critical as they would have been back then. However, the trend in industry these days is to switch away from hazardous chemicals to more “eco friendly” chemicals… which also don’t work as well, often requiring them to be used in higher quantities, at the expense of safety, longevity and efficiency. People don’t realize that there are trade-offs, and they will be paying more and waiting more if they want products that are “environmentally safe”.
It's interesting to hear the precursor to the adventures of Dr. Clair Patterson, who fought against walls of opposition to convince everyone that putting lead in everything was a terrible idea.
Kinda scary how much damage can be caused unintentionally by one man. Like who knows If something being created and popularized right now may lead to unforeseeable consequences.
Interesting segment! Well done, as always. Thanks for the great content.
When some guy in a suit tries to sell you on the next new thing, remember stories like these. Everything doesn't always go this way. But if it seems too good to be true then maybe it is.
I recall attending a lecture at a local university on the dangers of CFCs and ozone depletion in the very early 1980s. Great video as usual.
This man was anathema to all living entities on Planet Earth
Funny how people back then easily believed that toxic substances only affected people instantly. Chronic exposure was a hard lesson.
Leaded fuel is still being used. 100LL (100 octane low lead) is still in use for aircraft. It is allowed a max of 0.56g of lead per liter of fuel which is multiple times higher than Automotive TEL from the 70s onward. Also appearently, Midgley did find that ethanol could be used for octane booster but they couldn't (or didn't believe they could) produce it in a practical manner at the time. There are plans to start phasing it out this decade
1:30 as soon as I heard "engine knocking" I shuddered and knew where this was going
I never heard of him until this video. As always, one of the most Fascinating channels I subscribe to.
I was expecting him to be secretly murdered in a horrible way but this was a much bigger horror than just himself. This was world wide destruction. I liked this change
We had an alternative to Ethyl. In 1932 the first *gasohol* came to market. Developed at Iowa State College, the 90/10 gasoline/ethanol blend proved nearly as effective in antiknock properties as tetraethyl-lead gas, without the danger of lead poisoning or lead pollution.
Among gasohol's proponents was Earl Coryell, who operated filling stations out of Lincoln, NE. Coryell interested Nebraska state officials in the fuel, which would have opened up a new market for depression-plagued corn farmers. However, the Ethyl Corporation, co-owned by GM and Esso, quickly moved to influence state legislatures to ban the use of _any_ alcohol in motor fuels.
In 1936, Earl Coryell was party to an antitrust suit filed against Ethyl in the US Supreme Court. The court ruled in Ethyl's favor in 1940, assuring that gasohol would never gain a competitive foothold. Gasohol then disappeared until the global oil crisis and environmental concerns arose in the 1970s.
Considering he had experienced the effects of lead poisoning firsthand and seen others around him die from it and yet STILL vouched for the use of leaded fuel, I can’t say I have too much sympathy for the guy.
As a refrigeration specialist, Freon R22 is still the best for what it does.
I think this is one of your BEST YET !!!!
All the progress that we accomplished that lead us to 8 billions now, ultimately will kill us. This is fascinating horror.
Bravo! My fam was the head chemical engineer at Amoco and worked on these projects. Accurate. Please take notice that violence in US society tracks directly with the proliferation/de-proliferation of leaded gasoline, etc. It’s a 15-20 year lag but tracks very closely.
‘Strangled to death by his inventions.’ And so was the whole world
I kinda feel like this one was a bit of a miss. On one hand, I guess but that could be applied to the person(s) who invented pesticides too. He did the absolute best with the information he had at the time and there was absolutely no way he could have known about those kind of long term effects. One could even argue that refrigeration (which still uses Freon btw) saved many more lives than it ever hurt. The ability to keep and ship food, store organs and blood, even stabilize medicine like insulin would have been impossible.
With the ozone thing; there are speculations that the ozone layer actually cycles in thickness over time in correlation with the suns radiation output and that the thinning didn't actually have anything to do with Freon. Right now the sun is experiencing a grand solar minimum, where it's basically putting off considerably less radiation than normal (though we likely wont see those effects for a while). It's one of those things that we have only just begun to be able to measure and with no solid track records we have literally very little idea what the real cycles of a billions year old planet really go though.
Great points. I agree, a bit of a miss on this one.
Being a Pennsylvania native, I knew this episode wouldn't end well for humans or Mother Nature... damnit I was correct, unfortunately!!!🙏🤔😵💫😵
Great vid FH. Surprising to learn of his passing not by chemicals effects, but his own lifting device.