5 Inventors Who Were Killed By Their Creations

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inventors are often viewed as eccentric individuals locked away in secret labs producing huge numbers of wacky and often useless prototypes before finally making its big with a world-changing creation while some inventors certainly do go on to change the world and obtain fame and fortune for many inventors throughout history their creations have been the very thing which ended their lives here are my choices for five inventors who were killed by their inventions number five Franz Reichelt also known as the flying tailor Franz Reichelt was an austrian-born tailor and inventor who moved to Paris and became obsessed with the idea of creating a suit for pilots which doubled as a functioning parachute that would allow them to escape a crashing aircraft unscathed during his lifetime he had witnessed the birth of powered flight in 1903 however this new invention was still in its infancy and therefore tended to be unreliable with aviators unlikely to survive any accidents these accidents had led to a growing interest in safety measures and there was a huge demand for the creation of a practical parachute early attempts at parachuting had utilized fix canopy designs which were already opened prior to jumping however such a design was simply not practical for use inside the tight confines of an aircraft cockpit and a solution that was suitable for use when jumping from a plane at low altitudes was still lacking fame and fortune awaited anyone who would come up with a suitable design and in 1911 a prize of 10,000 francs was offered to anyone who could create a parachute for aviators it was against this background that FRA Celt had begun working on a parachute suit which was a suit that was supposedly similar in size and bulk to a standard suit normally worn by aviators the suit contained a few rods some rubber and a silk canopy which would fold out to hopefully become a usable parachute early testing with dummies using the silk wings had proved successful however converting this design into a wearable suit proved troublesome and further experiments would result in test dummies crashing to the ground Reich health blamed the failures on using a test platform that was not high enough and subsequently applied for permission to conduct a test from the Eiffel Tower he was finally granted permission to conduct a test using dummies on February the 4th 1912 and a to the press that he would finally prove the worth of his invention he arrived at the tower already wearing the suit and incredibly it seemed as though he was intent on testing it himself instead of using dummies his friends desperately tried to change his mind pointing to high winds as a reason to abandon his test however Reichheld was unscalable in a further twist he refused to use any safety measures and in full view of spectators and journalists armed with cameras he climbed to 187 feet and prepared to jump he mounted a stool on top of the table and placed one foot on the guardrail he hesitated for about 40 seconds perhaps reconsidering his risky jump before leaping over as he plummeted towards the ground his parachute failed to open fully and Reichelt crashed into the frozen earth at the feet of the tower dying instantly and in full view of the multiple cameras pointed at him his death was reported all around the world where he was portrayed as a mad genius or simply mad but why had he taken such an unnecessary risk one of his friends later commented that he had felt pressured into giving a dramatic demonstration so as to attract media coverage and sponsors whom he would need the backing of in order to profit from the suit before its patent expired additionally other inventors were already making their own tests with parachutes and it's likely that he felt that time was running out number 4 Thomas Midgley jr. a brilliant mechanical engineer and chemist Thomas Midgley was granted over 100 patents over the course of his career and some of his most notable and infamous work involved the invention of leaded gasoline and CFC gases used in aerosols and refrigerators he was a key member of the team which created leaded gasoline as a solution to the problem of engine knocking which was a shock wave caused by small pockets of air inside a car's engine which could cause extensive damage a natural solution to this problem already existed whereby ethanol was added to the gasoline however this process could not be patented and was therefore not as profitable as an artificial solution General Motors promoted their leaded product as a superior alternative to ethanol as it was patented and therefore extremely profitable the downside to the leaded gasoline was that it was extremely toxic and public concern was raised following several deaths caused by lead poisoning in an attempt to calm the public's fears Midgley took part in a press conference on October the 30th 1924 in which he poured the lead over his hands and then inhaled its vapor from a bottle continuously for 60 seconds he told the gathered observers that he could do this every day without experiencing any problems however this demonstration failed to do its job Midgley would suffer lead poisoning as a result of this demonstration and was forced to take an extended leave of absence from work while he recovered this was not the cause of his death however in 1940 he contracted polio and was left severely disabled unable to move himself out of bed he put his inventive mind to the problem coming up with a system of strings and pulleys which would aid in lifting him from his bed each day in a strange twist to the tale it was this last invention which would kill him as in a freak accident he became entangled in the ropes which made up the device dying as a result of strangulation aged 55 his legacy has since become largely negative and highly controversial his work on leaded gasoline led to large levels of lead being released into the atmosphere which has been linked with long-term health issues in millions of people and his work on CFCs has been linked with ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere number three horace lawson Hunley with the american civil war raging the confederate marine engineer horace lawson Hunley found himself with the skills needed to obtain fame and fortune as well as to make an invaluable contribution to the South's war effort in 1861 he set to work with two friends in attempting to build a functioning hand-powered submarine a large bounty was being offered by the Confederate government for the sinking of Union ships and of course should the design proved successful huge sums of money were up for the taking in mass producing the design the three men set to work on the first design the Pioneer however had to scuttle her when New Orleans fell to Union forces in 1862 undeterred they began work on a second version the American diver however this also failed and ended up sinking in Mobile Bay Alabama during a fierce storm still persevering Hunley self-funded the creation of a third submarine named after himself the HL Hunley the 40-foot long submarine was just four feet three inches high and was designed for a crew of eight with seven men turning the hand-cranked propeller and one steering the sub the completed vessel was transported to Charleston South Carolina in 1863 where it was seized by the Confederate Army and given a new crew yet disaster struck when the Hunley sank during a test run after its new captain accidentally stepped on a lever which caused the SUP to dive while the hatches were still open five of the a crewmen drowned in the accident as Hundley observed in horror film ashore the valuable sub was salvaged and on October the 15th 1863 unli decided to take command of the vessel during the mock attack exercise exactly what happened underwater is unknown however the Hunley failed to surface and all eight crew were killed including Horace unli as a result of either cold or asphyxiation the Hunley had now sunk twice killing 13 crew including its creator but this was not the end of the submarine story she was later salvaged once more and in 1864 was used in the first successful sinking of an enemy vessel by a submarine in naval history yet minutes after the attack perhaps as a result of damage received during the attack the Hunley once again sank for the third time killing all eight crew bringing the total number of lives lost on board the Hunley 221 number 2 henry Smolinski ever since the car and plane have been around inventors have dreamed about combining the two as cars have become more widely adopted they have brought with them congestion and traffic jams a car that's able to take off and escape the gridlock seems like the perfect solution and if such a machine could be created surely riches and fame await its creator it was with such a dream that Henry Smolinski started a company with the aim of fusing plane and car he created a prototype called the Mizar which was made by using the rear parts of a Cessna Skymaster fused onto a Ford Pinto although later models were planned to have a purpose-built airframe the driver's controls were adapted so that the owner could fly the plane using the steering wheel turning left or right to turn and pulling or pushing to ascend or descend the rudder was controlled by pedals and the dashboard was fitted with all the necessary flight instruments the machine was designed to fly at 12,000 feet at 130 miles per hour and would have a range of at least 1,000 miles and was planned to go on sale for somewhere in the region of 18,000 to 29,000 dollars and while it might look too large to run on roads it was designed so that after landing the airframe could be tied down and unbolted from the Pinto which will then be free to drive off on public highways by 1973 two prototypes had been built with three more under construction authorization to conduct test flights was finally given and on August 26 1973 the hybrid vehicle took to the skies unfortunately it soon encountered problems and according to the test pilot the right wing came unattached forcing him to ditch the craft in a nearby field the downed missile was otherwise undamaged by the ordeal and taken back to the airports for examination undeterred by this failure test flights continued and on September 11th 1973 Henry Smolinski was flying his creation when once again the right wing detached from the Pinto this time however the outcome would prove deadly the right wing folded and the missile crashed to the ground in a fiery wreck instantly killing Henry Smolinski and his associate Harold Blake a later investigation into the crash revealed that the Pinto was simply too heavy for the airframe even without passengers or fuel it was already over the weight limit which coupled with poor design loose parts and bad welding led to the wing becoming detached and the plane crashing to the ground the tragic death of Henry Smolinski spelled the end for the missile project and his company was subsequently shut down permanently number 1 valerian avakov ski between 1917 and 1922 the Russian civil war between the Bolsheviks and anti-communists was devastating Russia although the Red Army had made breakthroughs their losses were mounting and against this backdrop that were understandably keen to obtain any new technologies that might give them a combat advantage it's here that a young inventor named valerian a Bukowski enters the history books the latvian born inventor usually made his living as a chauffeur for the checker which was the first soviet state security organization while working in this position he would have had access to high-ranking officials so it's likely that he was able to the ear of someone in power with talk of his latest invention the arrow wagon the arrow wagon was a high-speed rail car fitted with an aircraft engine and propeller and was designed to transport high-ranking officials far quicker than an ordinary train such an advantage might give the Red Army an edge in the war as important officials could reach their destinations in record time and the technology might even be rolled out to ferry troops to the frontline far quicker than before it seems as though the young chauffeurs lack of experience in creating inventions manifested itself in the arrow Baggins design however and according to witnesses it was extremely loud and appeared somewhat unstable the railcar contained a massive aircraft propeller at its front and that were immediate concerns over the machine safety despite these fears the Aero wagon was given its chance to impress on July the 24th 1921 a group of high-ranking Bolshevik officials decided to try the railcar out on a return trip from Moscow to Tula inviting several foreign communist sympathizers on board with them to marvel at this new invention the first leg of the trip went smoothly and it seemed as if a bokov ski might soon be leaving behind his former life as a chauffeur however on the return trip the Aero wagon violently derailed at high speed crashing into the surrounding countryside and killing six of the 22 passengers including its creator valerian avakov ski the six dead men were buried in the Kremlin wall necropolis and although the Aero wagon was deemed to be a failure it's regarded as the inspiration for several other experimental designs combining the railcar with the aircraft including the German shine and Zeppelin railcar the American m4 97 black beetle railcar and the Soviet turbojet train so those are my choices for five inventors who were killed by their creations let me know which other examples you know of in the comments below and I'll see you again on the next video

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Channel: Unknown5

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Keywords: Inventors Who Were Killed By Their Creations, inventors, inventions, weird inventions, history, documentary, documentaries, bizarre, unknown5, unknown 5, top 5, top 10, top 15, top 20, top 25, interesting videos, Valerian Abakovsky, Henry Smolinski, Horace Lawson Hunley, Thomas Midgely Jr., Franz Reichelt, inventors creations, inventor, science, unusual, mystery, mysteries, mysterious, science videos, historical, education, aerowagon, flying tailor, Mizar, submarine, flying car, parachute

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Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 05 2016

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