REVELATIONS IN SCIENCE: a respectable and respected mass murderer and suicide
Art design: huxley.media via Photoshop inspired by René Magritte’s painting Portrait of Stephy Langui, 1961
Over the past several thousand years, the history of civilization has surprised us with more than a few villains whose actions harmed not hundreds or even thousands, but millions of people. Genghis Khan, in all likelihood, claimed a million lives during the conquest of China; Tamerlane at the very least repeated that record; Napoleon, and later Hitler, easily renewed this dubious milestone…
But is there someone who managed to harm more people than these figures? As it turns out, such a person does exist — without a doubt — and surpassing him will be difficult (though unfortunately, I cannot say it is impossible). He damaged the health not of millions but of billions of people, killing many and undermining the health of countless others — I am certain that among them are quite a few reading these lines.
And what did he receive in return? Plenty: membership in the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, the title of president of the American Chemical Society, two of its most prestigious awards — the Willard Gibbs Award and the Priestley Medal — and more than 170 patents… These are only the main accolades of Thomas Midgley (1889–1944), a man who, according to historian John McNeill, «had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history». I would add: with a massive minus sign.
FIGHTER AGAINST KNOCKING
I
n 1916, right after graduating from the prestigious Cornell University, Midgley joined the no less prestigious General Motors laboratory, where he began searching for a solution to one of the most pressing problems in the automotive industry at the time — engine knocking. This was not what many might think — it referred to the explosive detonation of fuel in the cylinders even before ignition, simply under pressure, mercilessly destroying the engine. The cause was clear — the low octane rating of gasoline. So the task was to find an additive that would raise the octane level without causing any harm.
At first, Midgley for some reason decided that gasoline would stop detonating if something red was added to it. On a Saturday evening, he found nothing but an iodine solution and was pleased to discover that it worked! Midgley did not stop there, continued his search, tested 143 different additives, and in 1921 discovered tetraethyl lead — a colorless, oily, poisonous liquid that almost completely eliminated detonation. It was cheap, easy to produce, and eradicated the harmful engine knock.
Would its toxicity cause any harm? «Hardly», Midgley concluded, «nobody drinks gasoline, and the accidental contact of a few drops with a person is clearly not dangerous». To prove his point, he called a press conference, during which he diligently inhaled the vapors of leaded gasoline for a full minute, poured it onto his hand, and yet did not drop dead — moreover, he showed up at work afterwards alive and well.
WHAT ARE ROMANS TO US!
Some recalled how back in the 19th century a scientific theory was put forward that Ancient Rome was destroyed precisely by lead. Later, studies of Roman remains often showed that their lead content was almost the same as in those poisoned by lead compounds.
The main killers, as it turned out, were white lead, used as cosmetics, and lead acetate («sugar of lead»), which due to its cheapness was added to sweeten wine. In the last two centuries of the empire’s existence, they ensured a high prevalence in Rome of such «wonderful» things as anemia, infertility, amnesia, and depression. The barbarians who descended upon Rome were clearly not harmed by this…
But Ancient Rome was long gone, and knock-free gasoline was needed right now. Giant plants for its production began to be built, and the company behind it united such business giants as General Motors, DuPont, and Standard Oil. The fact that just two months after the launch of one of these factories, five workers died of lead poisoning and dozens more fell gravely ill did not attract much attention — well, they hadn’t followed safety rules, they should have been more careful…
As a result, by the late 1960s, 98% of gasoline in the United States was leaded (notice, not a word about lead — the brand name Ethyl was used instead). Even though one of the largest factories producing it was nicknamed «the House of Butterflies» by its workers (one of the typical symptoms of lead poisoning being visual hallucinations). And so Midgley’s first grand invention conquered the world.
BRINGERS OF COOLNESS
The second invention did not take long to arrive: in 1928, Midgley synthesized dichlorodifluoromethane (CCl₂F₂) — the first of the substances that later became known collectively as «freons» or «CFCs». For refrigerators and air conditioners, which had already appeared by that time, they became absolutely essential and sharply improved their performance. They were soon actively used in medicine and perfumery, in the creation of aerosols, and simply as a propellant base in all kinds of spray cans. Their production steadily increased and by 1987 had reached 1,300,000 tons — quite a significant figure.
Carbon compounds are usually flammable, chlorine and fluorine compounds are often toxic — but what about freons? Thomas Midgley and all the companies using his invention and related substances unanimously assured that there was no danger at all — in refrigeration systems these substances circulated in a closed loop, and minor leaks, like aerosol sprays, were completely harmless; besides, unlike pure fluorine and chlorine, they posed no threat to anyone.
At press conferences on this topic, Midgley entertained journalists by inhaling freon vapors and then exhaling them onto a burning candle — it did not flare up but went out. Incidentally, freons turned out to be highly useful in specialized fire-extinguishing systems as well — they certainly did not support combustion. Not to mention their use in every household refrigerator and air conditioner… And so Midgley’s second invention conquered the world no less than his first.
HERE FORTUNE FAILED
He also had a third invention, which turned out, in principle, to be unsuccessful. Jonas Salk gave the world his polio vaccine only in the 1950s, and in the 1940s, no one was safe from this terrible disease — even President Franklin Roosevelt contracted it and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. From 1940, Midgley himself also suffered from polio. His own illness inspired him to create another unique invention — a complex system of pulleys, blocks, and ropes that lifted him out of bed and allowed him to sit up. For four years it worked quite well, but then it failed completely — on November 2, 1944, Midgley was found at home strangled by the malfunctioning device. It can hardly be counted among useful inventions — it killed its creator. And the first two?
LEAD POISONING OF THE ENTIRE WORLD
The first invention had worried scientists from the very beginning — as already mentioned. But until around the early 1970s, this concern remained largely theoretical: in principle possible, but not considered highly probable, while leaded gasoline continued to dominate almost everywhere in the world.
However, evidence of its harm kept piling up, and between 1976 and 1989 its use in the United States decreased by 99%, practically disappearing. Only in 1996 was it officially banned in the U.S., and more and more countries followed suit. In 2021, the last three holdouts — Iraq, Yemen, and Algeria — finally joined the ban. There is no longer any place for this product on Earth.
Several horrifying facts led to this difficult decision. A number of researchers in different countries (Jessica Reyes in the U.S., Rick Nevin in Europe, Boris Revich in Russia, and others) established that about twenty years after the mass introduction of tetraethyl lead in a country, there was a sharp surge in violent crime (murders, rapes, robberies, assaults). This is exactly how lead affects the nervous system — it increases antisocial and aggressive behavior.
And that is not all: lead vapors caused a significant drop in the IQ of entire nations. Some researchers even cite specific numbers for the loss — over 800,000,000 IQ points in total. How many that amounts to for each resident of developed countries — possibly including you, the readers of these lines, and me, their author — do the math yourselves. As for the other diseases that continue to kill people even today, long after the tetraethyl lead era (with the estimated death toll approaching a million), I mention them only for the record — the picture is already clear enough.
THE OZONE HOLE AND HUMAN SAFETY
Midgley’s second outstanding invention turned out no better. For many years, everyone was convinced of the complete safety of freons. Try to recall anyone you know whose home never had a refrigerator — hardly possible, and each one contained freon! It might have gone on this way if, in 1982, the English scientist Joseph Farman had not discovered a deeply troubling fact — a hole had formed in Earth’s ozone layer over Antarctica, the very shield protecting the planet from the Sun’s harsh radiation.
This hole kept growing and eventually appeared even in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Yet, about a billion years ago, when oxygen first emerged from photosynthesis in plants, the formation of this protective layer was what allowed life to move from the depths of the oceans onto land. The thought of what would happen if the ozone layer disappeared entirely was terrifying.
Incidentally, as early as 1974 an article in Science reported that freons from aerosol sprays were destroying the ozone layer! After scientists raised the alarm in the mid-1980s, these findings were thoroughly investigated and confirmed. Urgent measures followed: the Vienna Convention was signed in 1985, and in 1987 the Montreal Protocol, aimed at gradually reducing freon production until its complete phaseout.
These steps bore fruit — the depletion of the ozone layer stopped, and more than that, it began to recover. There is hope that by 2050 it will return to its original state. For now, however, the ozone hole continues to cause harm. For example, in New Zealand, where the ozone layer is still thinner than over Europe and the U.S., the percentage of deaths from skin cancer remains abnormally high.
AS FOR GENGHIS KHAN…
I find it hard to say which of Thomas Midgley’s two great inventions wiped out more people on Earth. Yet it is clear enough that each of them harmed more people than the most vicious and treacherous conquerors. Was Midgley himself to blame? In the destruction of the ozone layer, perhaps not — for roughly four decades after his death, people had no idea about the dangers of freons.
But with tetraethyl lead the case is far worse — at the very least, according to the old phrasing of legal codes, he «knew, but failed to report». After that very press conference where he breathed in the vapors of leaded gasoline before the journalists, he had to undergo lengthy treatment for lead poisoning, but concealed this unpleasant fact. He was guilty and deserved no leniency — of the horrific deaths of workers at plants producing his wonder gasoline, he, too, could not have been unaware.
It is, however, absolutely clear which of his inventions mentioned in this article caused the least harm. Undoubtedly, the third — the system of pulleys, blocks, and ropes that allowed him, after being paralyzed by polio, to get out of bed and sit down. It killed only one single person — Thomas Midgley himself — and will obviously never kill anyone else.
And there is no hope whatsoever that any of the creators of ultra-dangerous inventions (and don’t say they are hard to identify — the inventors of poison gases, bacteriological weapons, and similar horrors are classified, but well known to the relevant authorities) will use Midgley’s device with the same outcome as its creator. I fear that is something we can only dream of. At least let’s dream…
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