10 Inventors Killed By Their Inventions

The difference between humans and machines is that we think and take risks. But sometimes risk are too great and can cause fatalities. If you look at history, you will find those great inventions succeeded because the inventors dared to take a risk and challenge the society, religion and sometimes history.

However, some inventors were not so lucky and were killed by the very inventions they invented! Here’s a look at the top ten inventors who were killed by their own inventions.

  • #1 Marie Curie – Radium
  • #2 Franz Reichelt – Coat Parachute
  • #3 Thomas Midgley Jr – Leaded Petrol
  • #4 Abu Nasr Ismail ibn Hammad a-Jawhari – Failed Feather Wings
  • #5 William Bullock – Rotary Printing Press
  • #6 Otto Lilienthal
  • #7 Alexander Bogdanov – Failed Blood Transfusion
  • #8 Max Valier – Solid and Liquid Fueled Rockets
  • #9 Henry Winstanley – Lighthouse
  • #10 Horace Lawson Hunley – Submarine

#1 Marie Curie – Radium

Marie Curie was a French-Polish physicist and chemist who is famous for discovering a host of new elements, including radium and polonium, as well as the theory of radioactivity and the isolation of radioactive isotopes.

She was the joint winner of the Nobel Prize in 1903 along with her husband Pierre. She tragically died on July 4, 1934, from aplastic anaemia, almost certainly contracted from exposure to radiation. How exactly they affected Madam Curie is still not known but much of her work was carried out without radiation protection. She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket and stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the pretty blue-green light that the substances gave off in the dark.

#2 Franz Reichelt – Coat Parachute

If there was one risk-taking inventor, it was Franz Reichelt. He is known as The Flying Tailor and is credited with inventing the coat parachute. To prove that his coat parachute worked, he conned the keepers of the Eifel Tower to let him demonstrate.

On February 04, 1912, Franz held a major press venue so they could witness his inaugural jump. He leaped from the first deck and gravity took over. The tragic inventor’s death was captured on video and still lives on.