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Thomas Midgley
Thomas Midgley Jr. was an American mechanical and chemical engineer. He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the United States by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned from common use due to their harmful impact on human health and the environment. He was granted more than 100 patents over the course of…
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science · American chemist and engineer (1889–1944) · chemist · inventor · engineer · also Thomas Midgley, Thomas Midgley Jr., Midgley
Born 18 May 1889 · Died 2 November 1944 · Q324992
31 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 1 entry
2024· 1 entry
It was announced that screenwriter Terence Winter was co-writing a feature film about Midgley entitled Midge
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2019· 1 entry
Popular Science: Thomas Midgley, Jr. may have been the most environmentally disastrous person of all time
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2015· 2 entries
Hackaday: Thomas Midgley, GM, And The Dark Side Of Progress
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Hackaday: Thomas Midgley
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2003· 1 entry
Awarded National Inventors Hall of Fame (2003).
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1987· 1 entry
The Montreal Protocol phased out the use of CFCs like Freon
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1944· 4 entries
Died 1944-11-02.
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At the age of 55, he was found dead at his home in Worthington, Ohio
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Awarded honorary doctor of the Ohio State University (1944).
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Was elected president and chairman of the American Chemical Society
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1942· 1 entry
Awarded Willard Gibbs Award (1942).
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1941· 2 entries
Won Priestley Medal (1941).
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The American Chemical Society gave Midgley its highest award, the Priestley Medal
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1940· 2 entries
And was left disabled; in 1944, he was found strangled to death by a device he devised to allow him to get out of bed unassisted
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At the age of 51, Midgley contracted polio and was left severely disabled
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1937· 1 entry
Won Perkin Medal (1937).
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1936· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate presented by College of Wooster (1936).
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1926· 1 entry
After intervention by the federal government; High-octane fuel, enabled by lead, was of military importance
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1925· 1 entry
Won Edward Longstreth Medal (1925).
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1924· 3 entries
Midgley participated in a press conference to demonstrate the apparent safety of TEL, in which he poured TEL over his hands, placed a bottle of the chemical under his nose, and inhaled its vapor for sixty seconds, declar
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Dissatisfied with the speed of DuPont's TEL production using the "bromide process", General Motors and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now known as ExxonMobil) created the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation to produce an
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To be "depressed to the point of considering giving up the whole tetraethyl lead program"
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1923· 2 entries
Won William H. Nichols Medal (1923).
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Midgley took a long vacation in Miami to cure himself of lead poisoning
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1921· 1 entry
Career landmark: vice president (1921–1944).
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1916· 1 entry
Midgley began working at General Motors
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1911· 1 entry
Studied at Cornell University (1911).
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1905· 1 entry
Studied at Betts Academy (1905).
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1889· 2 entries
The son of Hattie Louise (née Emerson; 1865–1950) and Thomas Midgley Sr
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Born 1889-05-18.
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