Thomas Midgley, Jr. (May 18, 1889 - November 2, 1944), was a American mechanical engineer turned chemist. He developed both the tetra-ethyl lead additive to gasoline and chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs). While lauded at the time for his discoveries, today his legacy is seen as far more mixed. One historian remarked that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in earth history."

While working for General Motors, he discovered that leaded gasoline prevented internal combustion engines from "knocking". The subsequent addition of lead to billions of gallons of gasoline eventually spewed huge amounts of lead into the atmosphere, causing health problems around the world. Workers producing the additive were even more greatly affected. In 1924, Midgley took a prolonged vacation to cure himself of lead poisoning — a fact he deliberately kept secret, holding a press conference to demonstrate the "safety" of contact with the substance. In this demonstration, he poured tetra-ethyl lead over his hands, then placed a bottle of the chemical over his nose and breathed it in for sixty seconds, declaring all the while that he could do this every day without succumbing to any problems whatsoever.

Eventually, he repented of lead (privately, at least), and invented CFCs as a grand apology to the world, and after hearing about people suffocating from gas leaks from refrigerators.

CFCs replaced the variously poisonous or explosive substances previously used. CFCs are also used as propellants in aerosol spray cans, metered dose inhalers (asthma Inhalers), deodorant, and more.

The Montreal Protocol forbade major countries to produce CFCs, and their production is set to cease on the rest of the planet by 2010. Health services and pharmacological companies have been replacing these inhalers with devices that do not contain CFCs.

Thomas Midgley Jr. held more than 170 patents. At 51, he contracted polio, which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to lift him from bed. In what must be one of the most ironic deaths in the history of science, Midgley was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55. Midgley died believing that CFCs were of great benefit to the world, and a great invention indeed.

References

Book: A Short History of Nearly Everything,

By Bill Bryson (Author), ISBN: 0385660049