The Most Harmful Inventor in History

I’m a big fan of Tim Harford, economic journalist, and author of The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics among other great books. I first came across his work through his podcast Cautionary Tales: “stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, daring heists and hilarious fiascos”.

I think my favorite story so far has been that of Thomas Midgley:

Thomas Midgley’s inventions caused his own death, hastened the deaths of millions of people around the world, and very nearly extinguished all life on land.

If podcasts aren’t your game, check out this writeup of Midgley’s life:

It is difficult to surpass the magnitude of the damage caused (to both human and planetary health) by two particular inventions: leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Curiously, both were created by the same man, a bespectacled chemical engineer from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania named Thomas Midgley Jr.