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Comment by afterburner | Hacker News Reader

In 1924 the inventor of the lead additive for gasoline, Thomas Midgley Jr., poured the additive over his hands and inhaled its vapors for a minute, as a demonstration at a press conference. He knew it was poisonous though.

Seems like such demonstrations, even just describing it, were de riguer in the wild west era of industrial chemical innovation.

Fun fact, Thomas Midgley Jr. also invented CFCs.

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The worse is, ethanol also has the same effect on gasoline and engines, however since GM needed something they can patent and control and exploit, they invented TEL and pushed it aggressively [0].

> So in February 1923, a filling station sold the first tank of leaded gasoline. Midgley wasn’t there: he was in bed with severe lead poisoning... [0]

This guy is an embodiment of quick-acting karma, and he didn't listen.

[0]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-...

If I recall correctly, ethanol needed to be added at around a 10% level to prevent engine knocking. At its peak, lead was present at around 1.1 grams per gallon, so about 0.1%.

Not intended to excuse them. The amount of additive required was why leaded gas was cheaper than using ethanol. And as a reason, three generations grew up with lead poisoning.

Pretty sure there are still people using illegally using this crap in road vehicles I think.

I think you can still buy TEL as an additive in the US for older/smaller engines?

Edit/Answer: No. You get lead substitutes instead [0].

[0]: https://www.walmart.com/search?q=Lead+substitute

Went to check if he ever had any erm, "effects", but this is even wilder:

> "In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted polio and was left severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. On November 2, 1944, at the age of 55, he was found dead at his home in Worthington, Ohio. He had been killed by his own device after he became entangled in it and died of strangulation"

Yes his death was extremely fitting.

He did get lead poisoning at least twice according to wikipedia, before and after the demonstration, requiring vacations to recuperate.

Don't tell me he took copper supplements on his holidays?

Another listener of Tim Harford's Cautionary Tales? If not, give it a listen! https://timharford.com/2022/11/cautionary-tales-the-inventor... The story of the Radium Girls tell a similar tale. Lick your Radium loaded brush to sharpen the tip, totally fine. Then the company denies all responsibility, and actively oppose concerned workers that start losing teeth, limbs and eventually their lives.

https://youtu.be/IV3dnLzthDA?si=hgG67vKmBBLgKgeg

This youtube channel does a good job of explaining his inventions and just how bad for society they were.

it's not how that works. you need to look at the counterfactuals too.

TEL decreased knocking, which decreased incomplete combustion, which decreased pollution a lot.

lead pollution from gasoline was about 30% of all lead pollution.

it's great that people recognized how harmful lead pollution is and coordinated action was taken.

for CFCs it allowed the development of fridges that use non-hazardous working fluid. previous ones used propane for example, folks kept their fridges on the porch because there were some that exploded.

from this article/essay (I'm not endorsing the main message, but the need for nuance and cost-benefit analysis is correct IMHO)

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2023/11/technological-sta...

Surely the counterfactual isn’t “what if we did nothing to reduce knocking”, but rather “what if we used any of the other substances which were known to reduce knocking and known to be safer, such as ethanol”?

Yes, and also "if we cared more about proving health safety", and unfortunately it seems - looking at aviation where TEL is just getting phased out - mostly we don't care enough.

R290 (highly pure propane) is still used pretty widely as a refrigerant with relatively low environmental impact.

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