1 July

Thomas Midgley was responsible for two of the most damaging inventions in human history. CFCs (that created a hole in the ozone layer), and lead in petrol. The latter was particularly disgusting, because GM, who he was working for at the time, knew lead is highly toxic to humans. They did it anyway. In a stunt Midgley washed his hands in the tetraethyl lead they put in fuels, and sniffed it repeatedly to prove it was safe. What they didn’t say was that he’d just come off treatment for lead poisoning. The men who put it in the fuel at refineries literally went mad, and died. Generations of people ended up with brain damage.