To be fair to Mr. Midgley Jr., at least he did not use arsenic instead
of lead, which according to his experiments also worked to eliminate
knocking. ;-)
On a more serious note, you have to look at his inventions while
keeping in mind what was known at the time. He was one of those people
that just got the job done, even if the task was considered
impossible, and no matter how many skills he had to learn in the
process.
He invented leaded petrol to give the allied war planes an edge, by
allowing more compression and more power. That was his task, he
delivered a solution in time for WW2. Don't forget nobody considered
lead dangerous then.
As for CFCs, he was faced with the task of finding a safer refrigerant
that wouldn't kill everyone in the house if the freezer leaked, again
he delivered. Nobody knew about this ozone layer thing back then.
Read Charles Kettering's memoir and tell me you wouldn't have loved to
work with the guy. One time, when he got metal splinters in his eye
from an exploding tank, and the doctor couldn't get them out, he
successfully dissolved them by bathing his eye in mercury. I mean who
has an idea like that?
But there must have been a darker side to the man, one Kettering
didn't touch on. When the workers got ill at the TEL plant and he held
that stunt press conference, he must have known this was unsafe. He
sure knew afterwards since he was sick as a dog from the lead
poisoning, but I don't think he did anything to set the record
straight.
I've always been suspicious about his accidental death. A smart man,
getting tangled up in his own ropes like that, not sure if I buy it.
Perhaps he was just tired of it all.
ST
On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 11:06 AM, 'Tony Smith'
ajsmith1968@...[Homebrew_PCBs] <
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>> a result of that. We might never know just how much damage Thomas
>> Midgley actually did. Some of the damage is only apparent decades later (as
>> with asbestos), and some is never discovered.
>
>
> We need to build a giant statue of that dude, and let the pigeons crap all over it before we poison them.
>
> Then throw the dead pigeons at the statue.
>
> Tony
>
> (Ol' Tom's other great contribution to the planet was stuffing the ozone layer.)
>