List of inventors killed by their own invention

Last updated

This is a list of people whose deaths were in some manner caused by or directly related to a product, process, procedure, or other technological innovation that they invented or designed.

Contents

Ill-fated inventors

Automotive

Aviation

The death of Franz Reichelt (d. 1912), who jumped off the Eiffel Tower expect­ing his con­trap­tion to act as a parachute .

Chemistry

Industrial

Maritime

Submarine Torpedo Boat H.L. Hunley, Dec. 6, 1863 by Conrad Wise Chapman (1864) Conrad Wise Chapman - Submarine Torpedo Boat H.L. Hunley, Dec. 6, 1863.jpg
Submarine Torpedo Boat H.L. Hunley, Dec. 6, 1863 by Conrad Wise Chapman (1864)

Medical

Physics

Richmann and his engraver during the electrocution in St. Petersburg Richmanns Tod 1753.jpg
Richmann and his engraver during the electrocution in St. Petersburg

Publicity and entertainment

Railway

Valerian Abakovsky's Aerowagon, a propeller-driven wooden railcar which crashed in 1921, killing Abakovsky and six others Aerovagon Abakovskogo (cropped).jpg
Valerian Abakovsky's Aerowagon, a propeller-driven wooden railcar which crashed in 1921, killing Abakovsky and six others

Rocketry

Perillos being pushed into his brazen bull Pierre Woeiriot Phalaris.jpg
Perillos being pushed into his brazen bull

See also

References

  1. "Died in the Saddle", Boston Daily Globe , p. 1, 2 June 1896
  2. "Killed By Own Invention – While Trying Motor Bicycle He Had Made, Schenectady Man Meets Death". The New York Times . 4 October 1903. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  3. Doris A. Isaacson, ed. (1970). Maine: A Guide "Down East" (2nd ed.). Rockland, Maine: Courier-Gazette, Inc. p. 386. (First edition).
  4. "F. S. Duesenberg Dies of Auto Injury". The New York Times . 27 July 1932. p. 17.
  5. Cheetham, Craig. The World's Worst Cars. Barnes & Noble. ISBN   9780760767436.
  6. Boitani, Piero (2007). Winged words: flight in poetry and history. University of Chicago Press. p. 38. ISBN   978-0-226-06561-8 . Retrieved 22 November 2014 via Google Books.
  7. "1824 DEATH OF LIEUT. THOMAS HARRIS AT BEDDINGTON PARK, CROYDON". The Aeronautical Journal. 33. Royal Aeronautical Society. 1929. Thomas Harris was the first English aeronaut killed during a flight in a balloon. His death was due to his own invention of a patent valve...
  8. Science and Society
  9. Reay, D. A. (2014-05-18). The History of Man-Powered Flight. Elsevier. p. 40. ISBN   978-1-4831-4599-0.
  10. Biography of Otto Lilienthal Lilienthal Museum
  11. 2003 Personal Accounts Darwin Awards
  12. Great Britain Patent GB191026658
  13. Ralph S. Cooper, D.V.M. "Aurel Vlaicu at www.earlyaviators.com" . Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  14. Morris, Neil (2010). From Fail to Win, Learning from Bad Ideas: Transportation. Heinemann-Raintree Library. ISBN   978-1-4109-3911-1.
  15. Soniak, Matt, "The Flying Pinto That Killed Its Inventor", Mental Floss, July 30, 2012 Accessed 26 April 2023
  16. "British inventor dies in crash on test flight of his flying taxi". The Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 20 August 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  17. "Michael Robert Dacre". memorialwebsites.legacy.com. Archived from the original on 2023-04-30. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  18. Franco, Michael, "Death by Invention: 5 Inventors who Died by Their Own Work", How Stuff Works? Accessed 26 April 2023
  19. "Aviation Investigation Preliminary Report ERA24FA310". NTSB. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  20. "Marie Curie". www.mariecurie.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  21. Beckett, J V (1983). "Carlisle Spedding (1695–1755), Engineer, Inventor and Architect" (PDF). Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Second Series. 83: 131–140. doi:10.5284/1061803.
  22. Wood, Oliver (1988), "West Cumberland Coal: 1600–1982/3", Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society Extra Series, no. XXIV, Kendal: Wilson, p. 41, ISBN   9780950077956
  23. "The Carlisle Spedding Steel Mill" (PDF). Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  24. "United States Patent 61996" . Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  25. "United States Patent 100,367" . Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  26. "Inventors killed by their own inventions". Discovery News . Retrieved 2010-10-30.
  27. "RADIUM PAINT TAKES ITS INVENTOR'S LIFE; Dr. Sabin A. von Sochocky Ill a Long Time, Poisoned by Watch Dial Luminant. 13 BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS Death Due to Aplastic Anemia-- Women Workers Who Were Stricken Sued Company". The New York Times. 1928-11-15. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  28. "Sabin Arnold von Sochocky". geni_family_tree. 1883. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  29. Clingan, Ian C., lighthouse (coastal navigation), Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 2 July 2023
  30. Hart-Davis, Adam (2002). Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Lighthouse. Thrupp, Gloucestershire: Sutton Company Limited. p. 170. ISBN   978-0-7509-1835-0.
  31. "Eddystone Lighthouse History". Eddystone Tatler Ltd. Archived from the original on 2 May 2006. Retrieved 7 September 2006.
  32. Churchill, Dennis (2011). "The First Submariner Casualty" (PDF). In Depth (32): 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
  33. "The Birth of Undersea Warfare – H.L. Hunley". Undersea Warfare: The Official Magazine of the U.S. Submarine Force. United States Navy. September 17, 2011. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012.
  34. "Sub Marine Explorer". Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 2010. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  35. Sandler, Stanley (2004). Battleships: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. p. 32. ISBN   978-1-85109-410-3 via Google Books.
  36. Wright, Julia (12 October 2023). "Ferry tale: How cable ferries became a way of life in southern N.B." CBC News. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  37. Magazine, Smithsonian; Perrottet, Tony. "A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the 'Titanic'". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  38. McShane, Asher. ""Safety is just pure waste": Lost Titanic sub's creator made chilling comment in 2022 interview as search becomes "bleak"". LBC. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  39. Huestis, Douglas W. (October 2007). "Alexander Bogdanov: The Forgotten Pioneer of Blood Transfusion" . Transfusion Medicine Reviews. 21 (4): 337–340. doi:10.1016/j.tmrv.2007.05.008. PMID   17900494 . Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  40. Krementsov, Nikolai (2011). A Martian Stranded on Earth: Alexander Bogdanov, Blood Transfusions, and Proletarian Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 99–100. ISBN   978-0-226-45412-2.
  41. Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything . (2003) Broadway Books, US. ISBN   0-385-66004-9
  42. Alan Bellows (2007-12-08). "The Ethyl-Poisoned Earth". Damn Interesting.
  43. "Milestones, Nov. 13, 1944" Time , November 13, 1944
  44. Franklin, Benjamin (1962). "Account of the Death of Georg Richmann". The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Yale University Press. pp. 219–221. ISBN   9780300006544.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  45. "35,000 Watch as Barrel Misses Water Tank: 180-Ft. Drop Ends in Stunt Man's Death". Los Angeles Times . Associated Press. 21 January 1985. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  46. "Meeting a Terrible Fate – Nine Persons Crushed and Burned in a Collision – A Train Crashing Into the Rear of the Atlantic Express – Nine, Perhaps Twelve, Victims Caught in the Burning Cars – State Senator Wagner Among the Dead – Narrow Escape of Many Others – Terrible Scene at the Wreck". New York Times. January 14, 1882. p. 1. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  47. Douglas Self. "The Thuile Cabforward" . Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  48. DH. "La locomotive Thuile Cabforward" . Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  49. Alexey Abramov / Алексей Абрамов By the Kremlin Wall / У кремлёвской стены Moscow / М., Politizdat / Политиздат 1978 pp./стр. 399 (in Russian)
  50. "American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics". Archived from the original on 26 December 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  51. Silverman, Hollie (February 23, 2020). "Daredevil 'Mad Mike' Hughes dies while attempting to launch a homemade rocket". CNN. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  52. "Perillos of the Brazen Bull". Archived from the original on 16 December 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
  53. "The Brazen Bull" . Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  54. Guisso, R. W. L., The first emperor of China, New York : Birch Lane Press, 1989. ISBN   1-55972-016-6. Cf. p.37
  55. Fu, Zhengyuan, Autocratic tradition and Chinese politics, Cambridge University Press, 1993. Cf. p.126
  56. "The Civilization of China, Chapter II: Law and Government". Archived from the original on 11 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  57. Williamson, Mark (2006). Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years. IET. ISBN   978-0-86341-553-1.
  58. Maia, Samuel (1933). "O primeiro aviador português: quem foi?" [The first Portuguese aviator: who was he?](PDF). Arquivo Nacional (in Portuguese): 822–823, 831. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  59. Schmidtchen, Volker (1977b), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte, 44 (3): 213–237

Further reading