(In Pics) Eight Inventors and the Inventions that Killed Them

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Ever since the Industrial Revolution human society has developed at a breakneck pace. The scale of advancements made in the last two hundred years is unprecedented in history, as we went from frock coats and the Spinning Jenny to supercomputers and landing on the Moon.

It has not always been a smooth road, however. This burst of creativeness, powered by mechanization and later automation, has claimed its share of inventors as they pushed the envelope of what was possible.

Alongside the successes were tragedies, and many inventors would suffer the same fate: killed by their own inventions as they experimented with what was possible. These human guinea pigs would generally perform a double role as inventor and test subject, and the results were sometimes deadly.

Here are eight such inventors, killed by their own inventions.

1. Franz Reichelt and his Prototype Parachute

*Doesn’t look very safe, does it? Franz Reichelt was however so convinced that it would work that he tested it on himself, leaping from the Eiffel Tower in* *Paris* on February 4, 1912. Reichelt had become fascinated with the newfangled technology of aviation, and in particular pilot safety, attempting to design something which would allow them to slow their descent and land safely. Sadly Reichelt did not survive his own descent, dying on impact. In a grim footnote, the test was filmed, which makes Reichelt the first man to have his death recorded on camera (Unknown Author / *Public Domain*)

2. Horace Lawson Hunley and his Combat Submarine

*Pictured here is the H L Hunley, a* *submarine* developed by the Confederacy in the Civil War and what is believed to be the first combat submarine ever. She was not ineffective either, managing to sink the Union warship the USS Housatonic in the first recorded submarine kill in history. She was also extremely dangerous, sinking three times in her active career and killing a total of 21 crewmen. Her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, was lost along with all hands in the second sinking (Conrad Wise Chapman / *Public Domain*)

3. Alexander Bogdanov and Bad Blood

*This is Alexander Bogdanov, Bolshevik Revolutionary and early* *Soviet* *polymath. Alonbgside his work on cybernetics (and his science fiction career) he was a pioneer in* *blood* transfusion technology, using his research to save lives. He became obsessed with the idea of eternal youth through this means, and reported improvements to his health and eyesight after receiving 11 transfusions himself. Sadly a transfusion in 1928, from a student suffering from malaria and tuberculosis, would kill him (Unknown Author / *Public Domain*)

4. Henry Thuile and the Thuile Locomotive

*Henry Thuile was a pioneer in steam engines and* *train travel*, developing his own design dubbed the Thuile Locomotive. Thuile came from Alexandria in Egypt and his train, designed in 1899, offered both power and speed. Sadly the year after its invention Thuile was killed during a high speed run when he apparently leaned too far out of the cab and either struck an obstacle alongside the track or fell to his death. The train project itself was superseded and abandoned in 1904 (Unknown Author / *Public Domain*)

5. Valerian Abakovsky and the Propellor Train Aerowagon

*If you think the Thuile Locomotive looks dangerous, brace yourself for the Aerowagen. The brainchild of Latvian inventor Valerian Abakovsky, the Aerowagen was fitted with an* *aircraft* engine and an enormous propellor. Built in 1917, it was envisioned that it would carry important documents or high ranking officials, but testing came to a sudden halt in 1921, as did the Aerowagen, when it derailed during a high speed run. Abakovsky was among the six casualties of the crash (Автор фото неизвестен / *Public Domain*)

6. Henry Smolinski and his Flying Car

This is the AVE Mizar, which is what happens when you join the twin tails of a Cessna Skymaster to a 1971 Ford Pinto. Invented by Henry Smolinski, it was intended to combine the best of both worlds by offering a road car which could be converted when needed into a *plane. The concept appeared in the Bond movie* The Man With The Golden Gun, although the villain Scaramanga used an AMC Matador as his car of choice. Sadly in the real world Smolinski was killed on the car’s 1973 test flight, with some saying that the Pinto detached from the wings and tail and plummeting to earth (Doug Duncan / *CC BY-SA 3.0*)

7. Henry Winstanley and his Eddystone Lighthouse

*Born in 1644, Henry Winstanley was an* *English* gentleman and merchant who dabbled in painting and engineering. His most famous invention was the Eddystone Lighthouse, designed and constructed after two of Winstanley’s merchant ships were wrecked on the nearby Eddystone rocks. The first *lighthouse* was completed in 1698 and a second, strong one two years later. Both proved an effective warning to ships navigating nearby: no ship was lost on Eddystone rocks during its service. Sadly, after only 5 years the lighthouse was lost in the Great Storm of 1703: Winstanley was inside, professing great confidence that his construction would withstand the weather (Henry Roberts / *Public Domain*)

8. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier: The First Air Fatality in History

*Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was an 18th century aviation pioneer and the first man to die in an aviation accident. He made the first manned* *balloon* *flight in history in 1783, persuading* *King Louis XVI* to allow him to attempt the journey (the King wanted condemned criminals as his test pilots). He would ascend three more times successfully before his final, fatal flight on June 15 1785, where his balloon suddenly caught fire and crashed to the ground, killing everyone aboard (Unknown Author / *Public Domain*)

Top Image: The first manned balloon flight in 1783. The pilot Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier would be killed on a similar flight two years later. Source: Unknown Author / Public Domain.

By Joseph Green

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Joseph Green

Joseph Green is editor for Historic Mysteries, which combines his background in English Literature with a lifelong fascination for the strange and the unexplained. Read More