The Guy Who Accidentally Killed 100 Million People

Morning Murderers!

This scientist dude, Thomas Midgley Jr.:

Accidentally killed 100 MILLION PEOPLE!!!

HOW lol??

So it's 1916.

Cars have a problem: their engines keep banging.

So the car company General Motors hires this scientist dude, Thomas Midgley Jr., to figure out a solution.

Immediately, Midgley gets to work, experimenting with all sorts of different chemicals, adding them to gasoline to see if it solves the problem, including…

Melted butter. 

(Doesn’t really work)

Ethanol.

(Kinda works but REALLY expensive)

Tellurium.

(Does work but absolutely STINKS)

See, Midgley needs something that actually works, isn’t too expensive, and also… doesn’t stink.

Finally, after 5 years of testing, he has it…

Tetraethyl lead!

It was exactly what he was looking for! 

It works… it’s super cheap and…it doesn’t stink!

So Midgley and the head of research at General Motors patent the process and call their new product Ethyl!

Soon, this stuff is in pretty much every car on earth… it is just that good!

But there's a problem…

Turns out the “lead” part of Tetraethyl lead is kinda… poisonous.

So countless people are just walking about unknowingly inhaling teeny tiny poisonous lead particles into their lungs…

Midgley tries to assure everyone that it is safe by pouring the product on his hand and inhaling it for a full minute.

But it isn’t safe.

And Midgely knows it, because he too is suffering from lead poisoning.

It isn’t until the late 1970s that countries began to realise the dangers of Midgley's creation, and soon leaded gasoline is outright BANNED for being too unsafe.

During that time, leaded gasoline was shown to have lowered the average IQ of an entire generation of people by a couple points…

Led to more murders and crime overall.

And caused the deaths of over 100 MILLION people!

Including Midgley himself. 

Yikes…

Before Midgley died, he was also a pioneer behind some other deadly chemicals called CFCs...

Stay Cute,
Henry & Dylan 🌈

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