Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various
eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today, following the Titan disaster, I was thinking about inventing
and how it can be a dangerous thing.
Everyone wants to come up with the next big thing
but what if you don’t survive it.
Here are a few examples of those unlucky enough
to be killed by their own inventions:
Stockton Rush
Oversaw the design and construction of the Titan.
Craft imploded during a trip to the Titanic wreck site
killing everyone on board.
Francis Edgar
Stanley
Joint creator of the Stanley Steamer
automobile.
Whilst driving he swerved to avoid an
obstacle which caused a car accident which led to his death.
Sylvester Roper
Creator of one of the first ever motorcycle –
the Roper Steam Velocipede
He fell off the bike a 40 miles an hour and
by the time anyone could get to him he was dead.
Horace Hunley
Creator of the first submarine to
successfully sink a warship.
Unfortunately, during a dive, the vessel
became trapped on the bottom of a harbour and all aboard perished
Henry
Winstanley
Built the Eddystone Lighthouse to combat the
loss of ships.
In 1703 the Great Storm of Southern England
destroyed the lighthouse… with Winstanley inside it.
Max Valier
Creator of a rocket powered car.
The car used an alcohol-based fuel which
exploded in his workshop killing him.
Jean-Francois
Pilatre de Rozier
Made the first manned balloon flight.
Crashed his balloon whilst trying to cross
the Channel.
William
Bullock
Bullock came up with improvements to the
pre-existing rotary press.
While installing one of these machines, his
leg became trapped and he died after developing gangrene.
Thomas Midgley Jr
Created a pulley system to help get him out
of bed.
One day he got caught up in the device and
was strangled to death.
Franz Reichelt
Developed a full body parachute suit.
Tested the suit himself, it failed and he was
killed instantly.
Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari
Made
a set of wooden wings covered in feathers.
Jumped
off the roof of a mosque to test them – they didn’t work.
Henri Thuille
Inventor
of a high-speed steam locomotive.
Died during a test run.
Percy Pilcher
Developed
a hang glider called the Hawk
The craft suffered a structural failure
during a flight and he was killed as a result of the crash.
Charles Lugeti
Creator of the Lugeti Stratos aircraft.
Lost control during a test flight and was
killed in the crash.
William Nelson
Invented
a way to motorise bikes.
Fell
off his prototype during a test drive and died.
Alexander Bogdanov
One
of the first to experiment with blood transfusion.
Died
when he used the blood of a TB and malaria victim on himself.
Michael Dacre
Created
a flying taxi.
Died
during a test flight.
Mike Hughes
Made
a steam powered rocket.
Killed
when the parachute failed to deploy during a crash landing.
Karel Soucek
Developed
a shock absorbent barrel for surviving Niagara Falls.
As
a result of an accident he hit the rim after falling 180 feet.
Henry Fleuss
Created
a rebreathing diving suit.
He
was killed while testing his creation as the pure oxygen he used was fatal.
Henry Smolinski
Created
a prototype flying car.
On
the first and only flight the wings fell off and he was killed in the crash.
Valerian Abakovsky
Developed
a high speed railcar.
On
a return trip the train jumped the track at 70 miles an hour.
Otto Lilienthal
Created
a glider with a 23 foot wingspan.
The
glider stalled during a test flight and crashed to the ground.
Robert Cocking
Designed
a parachute.
The
parachute failed to open during a test flight and Cocking plummeted to his
death.
Luis Jimenez
Created
the 32 foot tall sculpture called ‘Blucifer’.
During
installation, pieces of the sculpture fell on him severing an artery in his leg
and he died the next day.
Fred Deusenberg
Created
the Deusenberg automobile.
Killed
during a high speed accident.
Aurel Vlaicu
Inventor
of a self-built airplane.
Failed
in his attempt to cross the Carpathian Mountains.
Sabin Arnold von Sochocky
Inventor of luminescent paint which contained radium.
Died as a result of a disease caused by
radiation poisoning.
John Day
Developed a diving chamber.
Died during a test run
Julius H.
Kroehl
Co-designer of a hand powered submersible
Died from decompression sickness after
repeated dives
Cowper Phipps
Coles
Designed a masted turret ship
Drowned when it sank.
Thomas Andrews
Architect of the RMS Titanic.
Insisted on going down with the ship when it
sank in April 1912
Marie Curie
Marie and her husband Pierre discovered
radium and spent many years experimenting with.
She died from a disease caused by radiation poisoning as a result from constant
exposure to the material.
Maybe the moral of the story is that testing is
good but maybe we should be thinking mannequin not myself
