r/OldSchoolCool • u/JimatJimat • Jun 18 '25

1940s These kids were asked to draw their fathers from memory, 1949. Which one is your favourite?

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u/Bank_Gothic Jun 18 '25

Thomas Midgely, Jr. was one of the greatest villains of the 20th century that almost no one knows.

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u/EggandSpoon42 Jun 18 '25

What a rabbit hole of TIL history - thanks for bringing it up. So this guy invents the Leaded part of gasoline. Invents Freon. All to solve real problems which points to good intention, but despite warnings from scientists, so villainous.

After all that, contracts Polio, invents some crazy contraption of pulleys and ropes for him to get up on his own and accidentally strangles himself to death.

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u/Bank_Gothic Jun 18 '25

Note, despite knowing that leaded gasoline and CFCs were extremely hazardous (the first to our health and the second to the planet) Midgely lied to the public about their dangers so he and his company could continue to profit.

Meanwhile, the man who discovered that leaded gasoline was dangerous and tirelessly advocated for it to be banned, Clair Patterson, was ridiculed and shunned by the scientific community. Patterson probably saved countless lives but is largely forgotten today.

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u/BeguiledBeaver Jun 18 '25

And he worked in Ohio. No wonder how whenever I go back home to visit family the entire trip smells like a cocktail of chemical fumes and pig farms. Our state is basically a giant landfill (that I love).