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Moved fast and broke himself.

What homemade gizmo killed him? A quick search online said that he died from a stroke.

It's in the Wikipedia article. It was a device he invented to help himself get out of bed after having been disabled by polio.

Ah. I presumed you were talking about Charles Kettering, who also was one of the developers of leaded gasoline (and Freon).

Breakfast time, Grommit!

Perhaps it's for the best that he didn't survive. Given his track record, we probably wouldn't have survived whatever he came up with next.

There's a great QAA Podcast episode about it.