Thomas Midgley Jr.’s Deadly Inventions

Midgley was a deeply respected researcher and chemist who received multiple awards. He also developed both leaded gas and freon, two substances banned around the world now because they are very bad for the environment and public health.

Research:

Bellis, Mary. "The History of Freon." ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/history-of-freon-4072212. Blakemore, Erin. “The Ozone Hole Was Super Scary, So What Happened To It?” Smithsonian. 1/13/2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ozone-hole-was-super-scary-what-happened-it-180957775/ Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "tetraethyl lead". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Dec. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/science/tetraethyl-lead. Accessed 3 August 2022. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Thomas Midgley, Jr.". Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 May. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Midgley-Jr. Accessed 3 August 2022. Dayton Herald. “Midgey’s Death Termed Suicide.” P. 28. 11/10/1944. Giunta, Carmen J. “Thomas Midgley Jr. and the Inventions of Chlorofluorocarbon Refrigerants: It Ain’t Necessarily So.” Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 31, Number 2 (2006). http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/v31-2/v31-2%20p66-74.pdf Kettering, Charles F. “Thomas Midgley, Jr: 1889-1944.” National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, 1947. http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/midgley-thomas.pdf Kovarik, Bill. “Ethyl leaded gasoline: How a Classic Occupational Disease Became an International Public Health Disaster. INT J OCCUP ENVIRON HEALTH 2005;11:384–397. VOL 11/NO 4, OCT/DEC 2005. https://environmentalhistory.org/about/ethyl-leaded-gasoline/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “History of the Ozone Hole.” https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/history_SH.html “Novel Method of Removing Metal from An Eye.” Ind. Eng. Chem. 1919, 11, 9, 892–895 Publication Date. September 1, 1919 https://doi.org/10.1021/ie50117a017 Press release. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Thu. 4 Aug 2022. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1995/press-release/ Seyferth, Dietmar. “The Rise and Fall of Tetraethyllead. 1.” Organometallics, Vol. 22, No. 12, 2003. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/om030245v Seyferth, Dietmar. “The Rise and Fall of Tetraethyllead. 2.” Organometallics Organometallics, Vol. 22, No. 25, 2003. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/om030621b U.S. Department of Energy. “Fact #841: October 6, 2014 Vehicles per Thousand People: U.S. vs. Other World Regions.” https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-841-october-6-2014-vehicles-thousand-people-us-vs-other-world-regions

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