On the 18th of May, 1889, Thomas Midgley Junior was born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
He would go on to become a brilliant inventor, with over a hundred patents to his name.
During his lifetime his achievements would be lauded by his peers and the public alike.
By the late 1900s, however, it would become apparent that some of his creations actually
posed a grave threat not just to public health, but to the entire planet.
Invention was something that ran in Midgley’s family.
His father, Thomas Midgley Senior, worked for an automobile tyre manufacturer, where
he was responsible for several improvements to designs.
Midgley’s maternal grandfather also made a small fortune as an inventor, after patenting
a new type of saw, as well as several improvements to other tools.
By 1911 Midgley had graduated from Cornell University, having studied mechanical engineering.
He then moved to Dayton, Ohio – at the time a hotbed of technological innovation.
After working briefly for a company that sold cash registers, he soon landed a job working
in a lab owned by a subsidiary of General Motors.
There, he was given the task of finding a solution to engine knocking.
Engine knocking is the name given to a type of abnormal combustion which sometimes occurs
in engines, and which is characterised by loud knocking or pinging sounds and excess
vibration.
Today, engine knocking is a sign that something is wrong with an engine, but in the early
1900s it was extremely common.
Midgley went to work on the problem.
He was intrigued by the periodic table, and was said to carry around a copy of it in his
pocket at all times.
He consulted this now, and began working his way systematically through elements and combinations
of elements, seeking a fuel additive that would reduce or eliminate engine knocking.
By 1921 he and his team finally had a solution: tetraethyl lead.
When a tiny quantity of this substance was added to fuel, it caused the fuel to burn
more evenly, instantly eliminating engine knocking.
To stop lead deposits building up on the engine, ethylene bromide was also added – this would
eliminate lead deposits and ensure that all traces of lead were ejected via the vehicle’s
exhaust system.
The discovery was transformative, but wasn’t instantly welcomed by the general public.
Many people recognised lead as a poisonous substance, and so General Motors were careful
to avoid any mention of lead when naming and promoting their new product, calling it simply
“ethyl”.
Despite this, there were several deaths and hospitalisations as a result of lead poisoning
among workers at the plants which produced the tetraethyl lead.
Workers suffered from hallucinations, insanity, and damage to the brain and nervous system.
This, quite naturally, created a great deal of negative press around tetraethyl lead…
negative press that Midgley was keen to counteract.
At a press conference in 1924, he poured tetraethyl lead over his own hands and inhaled it from
a bottle in order to demonstrate how safe it was.
This insistence that the substance was safe, combined with the huge demand for a solution
to the problem of engine knocking, was enough to silence any detractors.
Tetraethyl lead was soon adopted across the country, and then around the world, in the
form of leaded fuel.
Even as his product took off, however, Midgley decided to take an extended break from his
work.
He was suffering from some of the symptoms of lead poisoning, and spent several months
in Florida, golfing and taking in copious amounts of fresh air in order to recover.
Returning to work with one grand success under his belt, Midgley was given a new problem
to work on: refrigeration.
At the time, mechanical refrigeration was available, but it certainly wasn’t simple.
Most methods required dangerous chemicals that could explode or leak out and poison
users – not something that many people would want in their homes.
If a way could be found to safely refrigerate foods and medicines, it would be transformative.
Midgley set to work, and quickly identified Fluorine as a chemical that might be of use.
It was highly toxic, but by mixing it with chlorine and carbon he could produce Chlorofluorocarbons
(or CFCs) chemicals that could be used for refrigeration, and which were neither explosive,
nor dangerous to human life.
A new CFC was patented under the brand name Freon.
Midgley was so confident in the safety of this invention that he was again happy to
demonstrate on himself.
At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in 1930 he inhaled Freon, held it in his lungs,
then used it to blow out a candle…
all without even a hint of ill effect.
The audience were convinced, and Freon went on to become widely used in the refrigeration
industry.
Just a few years later, fridges and air conditioners which used Freon could be found in millions
of homes across America and the world.
Not only that, but it was discovered that Freon made the perfect propellant for aerosols.
The miracle substance was used in not just millions but billions of aerosol sprays around
the world.
His two most high-profile inventions – leaded fuel and safe refrigeration – seemed to
have secured Midgley’s place in history.
He was famous the world over, highly respected by his peers, and the recipient of numerous
awards for his world-changing work.
In 1944, however, Thomas Midgley died unexpectedly.
In the final few years of his life he was affected by polio, and lost the use of his
legs.
Ever the inventor, he came up with a number of systems to make his use of a wheelchair
easier.
One of these was a mechanical hoist that would allow him to transfer from his bed to his
chair without help.
It was this invention that ultimately killed him – he was found on the 2nd of November,
1944 tangled in the straps of the device, strangled to death by his own creation.
Years passed.
Then decades.
Scientists started to be able to measure the world around them more accurately.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the true effect of Midgley’s inventions slowly became apparent.
Huge concentrations of lead were found across the world, particularly in urban areas.
At the same time conclusive evidence was published showing that lead could have a serious impact
on the health and development of young children – including causing brain damage.
In the 1980s, the United States began the process of phasing out leaded fuel, with many
other countries following suit.
Even so, leaded fuel was in general use as late as the year 2000.
There is no way to quantify the damage that leaded fuels have done, but it is almost certain
that they have contributed to millions of instances of illness, developmental difficulty,
and premature death.
The danger posed by Freon was recognised around the same time.
In 1974, scientists Mario Molina and Frank Rowland published a paper based on the hypothesis
that CFCs were drifting up into the atmosphere and destroying the protective layer of ozone
which surrounded the planet.
Should the ozone layer become too depleted, it would cease to provide protection from
the rays of the sun, with catastrophic consequences: rates of skin cancer would skyrocket, crops
would fail, and food chains would be thrown into chaos.
In the most extreme scenarios, it would become dangerous to set foot outside for longer than
five minutes at a time.
The work of Molina and Rowland was initially met with scepticism.
Industry representatives attempted to discredit their findings, and prevent them from being
disseminated – in one instance by complaining that they had used the brand name Freon without
permission.
In the 1980s, though, Molina and Rowland were proven right when the British Antarctic Survey
confirmed that that the ozone layer was thinning out to the point that there could be said
to be holes in the ozone layer over the Antarctic.
In 1987 a global agreement known as the Montreal Protocol was created.
Signatories worked together to phase out the chemicals, mainly CFCs, that were contributing
to the depletion of the ozone layer.
Over the course of more than a decade, the use of CFCs was drastically reduced.
As of 2020 there is still measurable thinning in the ozone layer, but it appears that the
process is slowly reversing.
It is likely that the ozone layer will be at full thickness again by the year 2070.
Had the issue not been addressed – if CFCs had continued to be used in the amounts they
once were – some scientists predict that the Earth might well have become uninhabitable
by as early as 2050.
Thomas Midgley Junior was commended during his life as a brilliant inventor.
His solution for engine knocking was a massive boon for the economy, enabling unprecedented
levels of growth and development.
The invention of safe refrigeration saved countless lives by allowing the storage of
food and the transport of medicine.
But what wasn’t understood during his lifetime were the long-term and unexpected results
of his inventions.
As it emerged, his two most famous inventions had utterly disastrous side effects.
It is likely that, all things considered, there is no single inventor whose creations,
when combined, have done more damage to human life and the environment than those of Thomas
Midgley Junior.