“Fortune does not bestow its blessings over all the inventors there are
people whose inventions proved their biggest enemies taking them to death.”
Have you heard about any new invention? Probably you can
recall the invention and inventor both but not aware of the hardship that an
inventor goes with. The entire humankind owe thanks to those inventors who were
there for inventing things all the way. Some of these inventors certainly know
that they would be caught by their own invention for their last breath.
1. Max
Valier
Period: February 9, 1895 – May 17, 1930
Max Valier was an Austrian rocketry
pioneer. He was the man after the foundation of German Verein für
Raumschiffahrt (VfR - "Spaceflight Society") making spaceflight a certainty
in later 20s.
In between the years 1928-1929 Valier
created rocket powered cars with Fritz von Opel. By early 1930s Valier tested
one liquid propulsion-based rocket car on January 25 1930. On 17 May 1930, when
he was experimenting in front of a combustion chamber to test the amalgamation
of oxygen and kerosene based water an alcohol-fuelled engine exploded on his
test bench killing him instantly.
2. Jean-François
Pilâtre de Rozier
Period: 30 March 1754 – 15 June 1785
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was a French
chemistry and physics teacher. He was also the pioneers of aviation. On 15 June
1785 De Rozier and his companion, Pierre Romain planned to cross the English
Channel from France to England with Rozière balloon. His invention Rozière
balloon was a combination hydrogen and hot air balloon. They had just started
and wind changed its direction pushing them back to land some 5 km from their
starting point. The sudden deflation of balloon resulted in a crash from an
estimated height of 450 m (1,500 feet). Both occupants were killed.
3. Franz
Reichelt
Period: 1879 – February 4, 1912
Franz was a French tailor and the pioneer
of the parachute sometimes referred as a flying tailor. He jumped from the
Eiffel Tower wearing his self made parachute to test his invention. For this
test as well as his first attempt he took the permission from the authorities
claiming he would do a test with dummy. But unfortunately the parachute failed
to deploy leading him to death.
4. William
Bullock
Period: 1813– April 12, 1867 
William was the man after the invention of web rotary
printing press means the images need to printed need to be put on a roller and
further the roller can be used on any substrate. Few years after the fame of
his invention his foot crushed during the installation of a new machine. The
foot which was crushed in the machinery developed gangrene leading him to death
during amputation process.
5. Marie
Curie
Period: November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934
Famous for her name “Madam Curie” was one
of the scientists who got the Nobel Prize twice. She is face after the
invention of the process to isolate radium after co-discovering the radioactive
elements radium and polonium. Due to protracted exposure to ionizing radiation
emanating from her research stuff she died of aplastic anemia. At that time the dangers of radiation were not
well understood.
Due to the prolonged exposure to the radiation
her personal stuff like her notebook has been kept in a lead lined box.
6. Karel
Soucek
Period: April 19, 1947 – January 20, 1985
Karel Soucek was a Canadian professional
stuntman who developed a shock-absorbent barrel. His invention demo converted
into his fatal death incident when he rolled down from the roof of Houston
Astrodome in his self-made shock-absorbent barrel.
The demo was planned in a way that he will
land in a water tank which was there 180 feet below but unfortunately the
barrel strike the tank’s rim leaving him fatally wounded and certainly dead.
Soucek was quoted as saying, "There is
no heaven or hell; there is no God. It's all a myth. You're born, you live, one
day you die and that's it."
7. Horace
Lawson Hunley
Period: June 20, 1823 - October 15, 1863
Horace was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He invented early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was posthumously named for him, H. L. Hunley.
In the due course of a test of a submarine
he was died which already gone through an earlier accident. In that incident Hunley along with seven
other crew members failing to resurface drowned.
The navy members salvaged that drowned
submarine and put that back into the use.
8. Francis
Edgar Stanley
Period: June 1, 1849 – July 13, 1918
Francis was a businessman and a co-founder
of Stanley Motor Carriage Company along with this twin brother Freelan Oscar
Stanley. The company used to build steamers. On July 13, while driving a
Stanley steamer when he was trying to maintain a distance from a farm wagon
travelling alongside his car he crashed into a woodpile.
9. Thomas
Midgley
Period: May 18, 1889 – November 2, 1944
Thomas was an American mechanical engineer
and chemist. He was a part of team who invented the tetraethyllead (TEL)
additive to gasoline as well as some of the first chlorofluorocarbons. During
his career he was granted more than 100 patents.
At the age of 51, Midgley contracted
poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. This disablement took him to
invent an intricate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from
bed. It’s really tragic that the same
system became the reason of his death when he got entangled in the ropes of
this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.
10. Wan Hu
Wan Hu was assumed to be a minor Chinese official
who was described in 20th century sources as the world's first
"astronaut" by being lifted by rockets into outer space.
The legend of "Wan Hu" was widely
disseminated by an unreferenced account in Rockets and Jets by American author
Herbert S. Zim in 1945.
"Early in the sixteenth century, Wan
decided to take advantage of China's advanced rocket and fireworks technology
to launch himself into outer space. He supposedly had a chair built with
forty-seven rockets attached. On the day of lift-off, Wan, splendidly attired,
climbed into his rocket chair and forty seven servants lit the fuses and then
hastily ran for cover. There was a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, Wan
and the chair were gone, and was said never to have been seen again."
Reference:
Wikipedia
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