Murder incorporated

Some may stumble their way in to HAVE A VERY BAD DAY infamy, but only the malevolently clever can invent their way in. Consider the far reaching and oh so regrettable contributions of Thomas Midgley Jr. It was Midgley who, while working for General Motors, discovered that engine “knocking” could be cured by the addition to gasoline of a substance, deceptively dubbed "Ethyl" by the auto and fuel industry. They deemed this miracle substance’s use harmless, but their effort to out-poison the Roman Empire by pumping breathable lead into the atmosphere, proved to be deleterious to health and on an a unprecedented, planetary scale. Midgley nonetheless assured the US surgeon general that "the average street will probably be so free from lead that it will be impossible to detect it or its absorption", blithely adding that "no actual experimental data has been taken". He was of course very and very fatally wrong. Not be be outdone in wrongness by himself, Thomas went on the invent CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons, as a non-toxic, non-flammable alternative to earlier refrigerants. CFCs also found their way into propellents for everything from deodorant spray to, astonishingly, asthma spray. Unbeknownst until decades after his passing, with every chilled movie theatre and freshened armpit, CFCs were finding their way into the atmosphere, contributing to the ongoing destruction of the earth’s ozone layer. Another lasting legacy for Midgely, this time leading to accelerated global warming, increased incidences of skin cancer, crop losses and general environmental mayhem. Thank you. The coup de grâce for Midgely, on a very personal level, would be delivered by his own, final contribution. Inspired by his contracting crippling poliomyelitis at 51 years of age, he invented a system of ropes and pulls to lift himself out of bed. A device with which he ultimately, fatally, strangled himself. HAVE A VERY BAD DAY indeed.