• ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    ‘Inventors’ killed by their inventions happens way more than people probably realize. First one that comes to mind is the Segway guy. Then there’s the more recent dude who built that shitty submarine for dives to the Titanic. Anyone else care to share any incidents?

      • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        My favourite is the guy who invented leaded petrol and poisoned us all, then invented CFCs and poisoned the atmosphere, then…

        Thomas Midgley Jr. (1889–1944) was an American engineer and chemist who contracted polio at age 51, leaving him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. He became entangled in the ropes and died of strangulation at the age of 55.

        Fuckin lol 😂

    • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Well, the segway guy, Dean Kamen, is alive. The owner of the company or something like that died though.

      So having removed one, I’ll add in the guy that made leaded gas.

      • squiblet@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        A British businessman purchased Segway in 2009, and in 2010 accidentally reversed off a cliff while walking his dog by the ocean, and died.

        • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 year ago

          Marie curie wasn’t really an inventor. She was a scientist discovering new physics… which turned out to be dangerous. She died likely due to lacking safety precautions people didn’t know were needed since radioactivity is harmful mainly in the long-term. Even then she lived a reasonably long time.

    • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      There’s the French dude who tried building his own parachute, climbed to the lower level of the Eiffel Tower, and tried making a spectacle of proving how good his parachute was by jumping from it. He promptly died on impact when it didn’t, in fact, prove very good at all.

    • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Musk didn’t invent shit. He bought his way in to being the CEO using his daddy’s money. These companies are successful despite musk, not because of him

      • dx1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think basically it’s a situation where he did manage to create the “scientific prodigy” reputation around himself, this created public buzz around whatever he was doing, and that did translate into different forms of funding. So some of the success is due to him, but basically on account of fraud. Same basic principle as Trump.

    • Dettweiler@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, the main salesman for Skydrol (a phosphate based, non-flammable hydraulic fluid for aviation), did not invent the product; but was known to drink some of it during his pitch to “prove” that the fluid was safe. He died of stomach cancer.

    • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The Chief Designer of the ‘Titanic’ Saved Everyone He Could as His Ship Went Down. Thomas Andrews died in 1912, when the ship he had designed sank, after encouraging the Titanic’s passengers to get off the ship if they could.