10 Popular Inventors Killed By Their Inventions

To become an inventor, you need a bunch of discarded stuffs, new imagination and lots of guts to take risks. This is a devastating irony that an inventor is killed by their own creation. Some inventions changed the human history and some are ended terribly. An inventor has to come up with good ideas and turn them from theory to reality. Sometimes things go wrong, don’t work, or work exactly in opposite to the plan. In the following list, we recognize few inventors who have lost their lives from their own inventions while trying to enhance the technology.

10. Max Valier

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Max Valier was an Austrian rocketry discoverer, born on 9th February 1895. He was remembered as one of the most famous inventors and scientists. The first successful drive with liquid engine, for only five minutes was occurred on 25th January 1930. On 19th April 1930, his alcohol fueled rocket car exploded during a test drive. He died twenty-eight days after the accident, on 17th May 1930. Later, his follower developed an improved and advanced version of Valier’s design.

9. Horace Lawson Hunley

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Horace Lawson Hunley, born on 20th June 1823 in Tennessee, was a marine engineer during the American civil war. He invented the first hand powered submarines in the mid of 19th century which was named after him. He faced first two unsuccessful attempts and finally he funded third submarine by himself. On 15th October 1863, the submarine sank and including Hunley, eight members were died.

8. Franz Reichelt

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Franz Reichelt was born in 1879 in Vienna and moved to Paris in 1898. He was a French tailor and regarded as the discoverer of parachute suits. His first design weighed around 70 kg and later he reduced it under 25 kg. On 4th February 1912, he granted permission to jump from the Eiffel Tower to test his design. He decided to jump from the tower’s first deck which is more than 57 meters in height from the ground. Just after his jump, his parachute seems to be half open and folded around him, resulted in a crash in the frozen, icy ground. He was immediately taken to the nearest hospital where he was pronounced dead.

7. Alexander Bogdanov

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Alexander Bogdanov was a Russian philosopher, physician and a science fiction writer, born on 22nd August 1873 in Russia Empire (Poland). He was also widely known for giving the theory of the possibility of transverse the human’s aging process through blood transfusion. In 1925, he founded an institute of blood transfusion which was later named after him. He started his experiments on a volunteer and satisfied with the result of improvement of his eyesight and many other positive symptoms. One day, he transfused his blood with the blood of a student infected with malaria and tuberculosis and he died.  But the student completely recovered from the diseases.

6. Otto Lilienthal

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Otto Lilienthal was born on 23rd May 1848 in Germany. He was remembered as the pioneer of aviation and also known as the “Glider King”. He did research on many birds, especially storks to find the aerodynamic structure of their wings. He made more than 2000 flights in glider and a total flying time of five hours. On 9th August 1896, he starts testing his gliders. On fourth attempt, glider has difficulty to handle it and he fell from a height of around 15 meters. He died on the day next to glider crash due to neck fracture

5. Henry Fleuss

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Henry Fleuss was a diving engineer, born in 1851 in Marlborough. In 1878, he was permitted a patent called re-breather. It consists of a rubber mask connected to a breathing bag with 50% oxygen supplied and carbon dioxide connected to a rope soaked in a solution of caustic potash. He tested his device by spending an hour in a water tank and diving in open water to a depth of 5.5 meters. He died from the pure oxygen because oxygen is toxic for humans under high pressure.

4. William Bullock

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William Bullock was an American inventor who revolutionizes printing industry with his rotary printed press. He always wanted to design mechanical machines. In 1849, he invented a grain drill and won a prize from the Franklin Institute. The press he invented could print pages 12,000 sheets an hour and later he improved it to 30,000 sheets per hour. On 3rd April 1867, his leg was crushed in the machine when he was trying to kick a belt onto a pulley. He died on 12th April during an operation of removing leg from his body.

3. Valerian Abakovsky

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Valerian Abakovsky was born on 5th October 1895 in Riga. He is best known as the inventor of the Aerowagon, a high-speed rail car fitted with an aircraft engine. It was originally designed to carry Soviet soldiers. On 24th July 1921, six officials including Abakovsky died on the return route to Moscow from Tula as the aerowagon derailed at high-speed. Later the design of aerowagon was improved and used in many vehicles featuring the combination of rail car with aircraft engine.

Also read: World’s Most Powerful Jet Engines

2. Michael Dacre

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British based AVCEN Ltd. developed a jetpod which can take off and land in short distances. It was designed to use as medium range air taxi. Its maximum speed is 550 km/h and needs only 125 meters to take off. On 16th August 2009, the founder of the jetpod, Michael Dacre was conducting the first test flight of his own creation. On fourth take off try, the air taxi impedes and crashed resulted to his death.

1. Marie Curie

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Marie Curie was one of the most famous physicist and chemist of all time. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, the only woman to win two Nobel and also the first woman to become the professor at the University of Paris. She co-discovered the theory of radioactivity and two elements, radium and polonium. She died on 4th July 1934, due to anemia caused by radiation. She never really accepted the health risks of radiation and carried out all the work without any safety measures.