Thomas Midgley Jr. is remembered as the inventor who destroyed the ozone layer and almost ended the world
Thomas Midgley Jr. destroyed the ozone layer, invented leaded gasoline that made cars poisonous, invented chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and his last invention was the device that strangled him to death
Welcome to Lux Ad Futurum, where I dissect, report, discuss, praise or criticise everything and anything that can affect the future. In this case, I revised a dark chapter in the history of humanity and remember how the greed of one man almost destroyed the planet. I start by going through his deadly inventions and in a future article I’ll talk about similarities in the environmental effects between those deadly past inventions and today’s more talk about technology: artificial intelligence and LLMs.
A recent discussion with
, editor of (news and views on environmental issues, politics, society, technology, and the wider world) reminded me of this individual; one who managed to destroy the ozone layer single handed, amongst other things. Do you think I’m being too harsh? Not really. Facts are facts.Anyway, the discussion with John was around the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that can be both constructive and destructive, useful and risky, one that according to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, “is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation” (National Governors Association, 2017), something he has been repeating on various occasions.
Let’s begin with a brief summary of one of the darkest chapters in the history of humanity, one about the man who harmed the world more than any other individual up to the present day: Thomas Midgley Jr.
The worst inventor that humankind has ever seen
Thomas Midgley Jr. was an American mechanical engineer born on 18 May, 1889 in Beaver Falls, Pasadena. He liked to experiment with extremely poisonous chemical substances without any concern for the consequences this could bring to the world, the population, or the environment. You know, the kind of destructive individual.
Thomas Midgley's education and training was not in chemistry but in mechanical engineering. Without an education in chemistry he was unaware of the risk that using certain elements from the periodic table would bring to the world. Or, he didn't care.
He is globally regarded as the worst inventor that humankind has ever seen, the one who greatly contributed to the environmental problems we still face today and the world will still be facing at least a hundred years after his death.
Thomas Midgley’s biggest and most deadly inventions include chemical antiknock agents, with tetraethyl lead being the main one used in his leaded gasoline, the extraction of bromine from sea water, and the use of fluorine to produce refrigerating compounds. With his inventions, Thomas Midgley Jr. contributed to the poisoning of three generations of children, increased the risk of skin cancer and other skin problems related to exposure to UV rays, and contributed greatly to global warming.
Thomas Midgley was part of Charles Kettering's team at General Motors, working on the development of additives for gasoline. In the early 1920s, Midgley came up with the non-brilliant idea of adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline --despite lead being well known as a toxic chemical-- to solve the problem of engine knocking, that is when fuel burns unevenly in the engine's cylinders of an automobile causing noise and potential damage to the engine's cylinder walls and pistons.
Lead is a well documented poison. The knowledge of its poisoning effects goes back to the year 100 BCE. In ancient Rome, it was common knowledge that lead could cause insanity and even death. Ignorance, greed, and convenience don't get along well with knowledge and responsibility, something that Thomas Midgley chose to ignore.
"Can you imagine how much money we're going to make with this? We're going to make 200 million dollars, maybe even more!" --Thomas Midgley said, during a phone conversation with Charles Kettering in 1923, while he was recovering from lead poisoning after demonstrating it was “totally safe” by inhaling leaded gas for 60 seconds.
Ethyl gasoline advertisements irresponsibly encouraged people to fill up their tanks with the poisonous lead gasoline:
Thomas Midgley Jr. knew his lead gasoline invention was poisonous, yet, he went on with it. To divert the attention from the word "lead," its poisonous effect, and the cases of insanity, hallucinations, depression, and several deaths of employees at the prototype plant in Dayton, Ohio and at the Du Pont's plant in New Jersey registered in 1924 that had been associated with lead poisoning, lead gasoline was given the name of a woman. It was then commercialized as Ethyl gasoline.
For the next 60 years, lead was spread around the world causing damage to people’s IQ levels, the nervous system, and other health problems associated with lead poisoning.
Rick Nevin, Economist and housing consultant, and author of the book The Lucifer Curves: The Legacy of Lead Poisoning, found the delay between lead gasoline gas exposure and poisoning and violent crime increase is of around 20 years.
In his book, Nevin clearly explains how pre-school lead poisoning has caused crime waves across centuries and around the world.
Source: Rick Nevin, Economist and Housing Consultant.
Poisonous effects of lead
After the cities of New York, Washington, and Philadelphia banned the sell of lead, new TV commercials appeared informing the population about the poisonous effects of lead, especially on children:
Exposure to lead paint causes serious health problems with children and pregnant women being the most vulnerable. Lead-based paint was banned in 1978. However, house renovation disturbs old paint and this may expose new proprietors to lead poisoning. An estimate of 35% of U.S. homes still contain traces of lead-based paint.
The U.S. Clean Air Act banned the sale of leaded gasoline effective 1 January, 1996 beginning a phase-down that ended in a complete phase-out by 1999.
Freon-12: a major contributor to ozone depletion
But there was still more damage to be done. In 1930, Thomas Midgley found within three days -- in other words: without doing proper research-- that dichlorodifluoromethane could be used as a refrigerant gas in residential refrigerators and air conditioners. This was quickly commercially manufactured as Freon-12 by Kinetic Chemicals, where he was the director.
To demonstrate the CFC gas was safe he inhaled a large amount of the gas, and blew out a candle flame to show it was non-toxic and non-flammable, therefore, safe. The man was obviously either out of his mind. Later, he needed medical treatment. As it turns out, the freon gas is considered to be one of the major contributors to ozone depletion and was later banned for production.
Damage to the ozone layer
The Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released by aerosols and damaged fridges caused serious and irreparable damage to the ozone layer, the region of the upper atmosphere that protects life on the planet from UV radiation and other forms of radiation that can injure or kill most living things. To the present day, we are still suffering the consequences of Thomas Midgley's deadly inventions.
The image below shows the false-colour view of total ozone over the Antarctic pole on 31 July 2018 registered by NASA's Ozone Hole Watch. The purple and blue colours are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone.
Source: NASA : Ozone Hole Watch
NASA ozone hole watch
The image below corresponds to July 2025. The false-colour view of the monthly-averaged total ozone over the Antarctic pole is shown below. The blue and purple colours are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone.
Source: NASA Ozone Hole Watch (2025)
This link contains other links that will show you bulk access to the images, animations, and raw satellite data (Bulk access).
Despite the long-term damage Thomas Midgley was causing to the environment, the population's health, and future generations, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Midgley 117 patents, including his Motor Fuel patent application filed on 22 January, 1926 (almost 100 years ago).
He left the planet almost without protection from solar radiation for the current generations and the generations to come, among other things, but that was not important for him since he was not going to be around for long.
In his later years, Thomas Midgley received a series of awards --yes, awards-- including the Priestley Medal in 1941 awarded by the American Chemical Society and the Willard Gibbs Award in 1942.
Someone thought it was a good idea to reward him with not one but two honorary degrees, perhaps for his unique knowledge (I am being sarcastic, in case you didn’t notice) on how to create irreparable damage to the atmosphere, and they also elected him as a chairman for the United States National Academy of Sciences. Finally, in 1944, the same year of his interesting and ironic death, he was elected president and chairman of the American Chemical Society. Go figure.
In 1940, at the age of 51, Thomas Midgley contracted poliomyelitis, commonly simply called polio. Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system causing total paralysis in a matter of hours. In some cases, polio leads to death when the breathing muscles become immobilised. Normally, polio affects only children under the age of five.
The disease left Midgley disabled. With too much time in his hands, he invented a pulley system to help himself get out of bed without any help.
Like all his previous deadly inventions, his plan didn't work as expected. On 2 November, 1944, he died of asphyxiation at the age of 55; his own deadly invention strangled him to death when it entangled itself around his neck. It was a clear example of how deadly all his inventions were deadly dangerous. Whilst some reports say his dead was an accident, others say he died by suicide using the device he invented.
After considering all the evidence, it is safe to say that Thomas Midgley Jr. has been the man who has damaged the world more than any other human being up to this date with consequences still affecting the world. He has rightfully earned the hate of many. Midgley is remembered as someone who should have been stopped from playing with chemicals for the good of humanity. Neither he had a clue of what he was doing nor formal education in chemistry, and certainly no common sense. He was too greedy and selfish. He never heard to those who warned him about the dangers of the chemicals he was using. He only thought about the money he would make.
Thomas Midgley's only motivation was to secure millions of dollars at the expense of the safety of the planet and all living forms on it. Thomas Midgley Jr. was the worst inventor who has ever lived, the one who damaged the world the most so far. The negative environmental impacts thanks to his chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) inventions destroyed the ozone layer; after almost 100 years, we are still suffering for it.
Some inventions must be carefully evaluated, regulated, and most importantly, if there is probability of high risk for humanity, it must be slowed down before it is too late, whilst potential risks are carefully and globally assessed.
Excellent article Susan - he was one of the worst, but there have been many like him. It is remarkable how much damage one person can do! 😀
Huge thanks for the mention Susan 😀