Who is the Real Doctor of Death, Thomas Midgley Jr. or J. Robert Oppenheimer?

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Thomas Midgley Jr.

Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about the ultimate doctor of death.

Who was the most destructive scientist of all time?

Due to recent movies and and a famous quote many would claim that the answer was J. Robert Oppenheimer, but they may not have the correct answer.

Thomas Midgley Jr. may have far surpassed Oppenheimer.

Midgley was responsible for inventing leaded gasoline. As a mechanical and chemical engineer working for GM. He invented an additive that could prevent engine knocking using what was called Ethyl to avoid the mention of its use of lead. The production of the additive caused 15 deaths as well as more cases of lead poisoning. Midgley himself, took an extended vacation after being diagnosed with lead poisoning.

Lead being dangerous was not a new concept, even the Romans suspected an issue since their pipes were made of lead which tainted their water supplies. Midgley set out to find safe levels, including making a public demonstration where he poured the lead gasoline on his hands and inhaled the vapors for sixty seconds holding a bottle with the chemical under his nose. The state of New Jersey halted the production regardless, and Midgley was diagnosed with lead poisoning again shortly afterward.

There are claims that the use of Ethyl has increased the amount of lead in the atmosphere 1,000% which have been linked to neurological impairments, with increased levels of violence and criminality. It is on Time Magazine’s list of “The 50 Worst Inventions.”

The quote “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” is famously associated with J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb. Originally found in the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, after witnessing the first nuclear test in 1945. Oppenheimer immediately realized the implications of his invention that would lead to atomic bombs which were responsible for killing about 210,000 people in Japan. At the time of the first test, there was concern that the reaction could set up a chain reaction, destroying the planet. Nuclear bombs, which are different, but were the next step of building weapons of war and not part of Oppenheimer’s invention (However, Iran, which is trying to build their own atomic bombs could raise the death toll).

According to these numbers, Oppenheimer’s invention caused far more deaths, at least directly. However, Ethyl wasn’t Midgley’s only disastrous invention. After developing Ethyl, he went on to combine fluorine into a hydrocarbon, which was named Freon and could be used as a chemically inert substance that was not toxic or explosive in 1937. It was long after his death that it was discovered that Freon created a hole in the ozone layer, and increased the impact of greenhouse gasses. Its contribution to global warming comes with the potential of being a planet killer. Freon was also on Time Magazine’s list of “The 50 Worst Inventions.”

The destruction of humans was under threats created by both of these scientists. A unique difference is that Oppenheimer invented what he intended, and it was used with that intention for killing hundreds of thousands of people where Midgley was trying to create safe solutions where “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” had far-reaching implications. The historian JR McNeill wrote that Midgley “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history”.

While his intentions may have been better intended than creating a weapon of mass destruction, Midgley’s final invention also caused a fatality. He designed an elaborate contraption with ropes and pulleys that would enable him to get up unassisted after being inflicted with polio. His death was ruled a suicide as he used his contraption to strangle himself. It wouldn’t be discovered for another few decades the entire impact he had on the environment.

Midgley’s CFC’s, his Ethyl, and Oppenheimer’s atomic bombs are no longer in use, but the use of these products has created a political life, through death of their own with lasting effects. Only the end of humanity will determine who was more destructive. If nuclear bombs end humanity, or global warming wipes us out, it comes down to the premise of a Robert Frost poem:

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

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