Many inventors have tragically died due to their own inventions, leaving a lasting impact.
The French inventor Sieur Freminet conceived the idea of creating a breathing device for underwater diving. Unfortunately, his first prototype was of very poor quality, and he died after using it for just 20 minutes.
Otto Lilienthal, a German engineer, tested his glider at Rhinow Hill in Germany. His first flight was successful, covering a distance of 250 meters. Tragically, during his fourth test, the glider stalled, and he died after falling from a height of 15 meters.
Horace Lawson Hunley was one of the leading marine engineers of the 1860s. He died when his hand-powered submarine sank, and rescue efforts arrived too late.
The British aviation entrepreneur Michael Dacre was testing an aircraft he had developed for his company Avcen Ltd. The aircraft malfunctioned and crashed in the northern area of Kuala Lumpur, resulting in his immediate death.
The Romanian engineer Aurel Vlaicu built an aircraft in 1913, achieving an incredible feat. He aspired to be the first to fly over the Carpathian Mountains. However, the journey was not smooth, and he died while crossing the mountains.
Franz Reichelt was a brilliant inventor and one of the pioneers of parachuting. During a test of his parachute, he jumped from the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, his parachute failed to deploy, and he fell directly to the ground, resulting in his death.
Max Valier played a crucial role in the rocket industry during the 1930s. He met with a fatal accident while testing a rocket-fueled vehicle in Berlin when the vehicle exploded.
The Russian inventor Valerian Abakovsky researched the development of the high-speed train Aerowagon. During a test, the train derailed, resulting in the deaths of himself and five others. The Aerowagon was equipped with an airplane engine and propeller, intended for transporting Soviet officials to Moscow. Although Abakovsky’s train performed well on its initial test run, it encountered an accident on the return trip near the capital. At the time of the accident, Abakovsky was only 26 years old.
William Bullock was an American inventor who lived in the mid-19th century. He is known for creating the modern printing press. In 1863, Bullock developed a new type of printing press that reduced labor and operational time compared to the rotary presses that had been widely used for 20 years. The only issue with this machine—like all machines created during this period—was that it lacked what we now call “safety.” On April 3, 1867, Bullock experienced the dangers of his own invention when his foot got caught in one of the printing presses being installed for a newspaper in Philadelphia. His foot was crushed and began to necrotize after nearly a week. Just nine days after the accident, Bullock died during surgery to remove the necrotic limb.
Thomas Midgley Jr was a mechanical engineer from Pennsylvania, famous for inventing leaded gasoline. He is also referred to as the “most damaging inventor in history,” a progenitor of climate change, and an environmentally unfriendly inventor. Leaded gasoline posed one of the greatest risks to public health until it was officially banned for use on roads in 1996. However, this was not the invention that led to Midgley’s death. According to a Time magazine article published on November 13, 1944, Midgley accidentally strangled himself with a cord he used to pull himself up from bed after being paralyzed from polio for many years.
