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Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

nytimes.com

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Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#31

Post by qqtt »

btgeekboy wrote: post #29
dmitrygr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you picked a very bad news source. this reporting has been debunked. they failed to control for increased lead in environment. neighborhoods NOT under flight paths but in the same area also have higher lead levels. this is sponsored by land developers hoping to close KRHV

Do you have a citation for the debunking? The WA state legislature is trying to push through a bunch of unfunded mandates of dubious effectiveness on airports based on this study.

Always be skeptical of individuals who claim things are debunked without citing their sources.

Also, it is true that neighborhoods near the airport not in the flight path also have higher lead levels than average, but I'm not sure how that helps the case - there is elevated lead levels near airports, which can adversely affect your health.

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#32

Post by pavlov »

b112 wrote: post #7
Groxx wrote: post #5

> Midgley is best known for the terrible consequences of that chemistry, thanks to the stretch of his career from 1922 to 1928, during which he managed to invent leaded gasoline and also develop the first commercial use of the chlorofluorocarbons that would create a hole in the ozone layer. TIL that was the same person. What a legacy. Whole-world-altering inventions (both in being spread literally everywhere because…

I sometimes wonder if such coincidences are because the person was a time traveler, or alien, or some such, trying to alter things, steer things in some way..

It’s just because there are a lot of people in the world, so things with billion-to-one odds do happen.

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#34

Post by Ekaros »

chuankl wrote: post #11

The absolute terrible thing about leaded gasoline is that they were already aware of several other additives (including ethanol, IIRC) that have the desired anti-knocking properties. But they went with tetraethyl lead anyway because it is cheaper and provided a few cents more profit per gallon. A cent was worth more back then than it does now, but still :-(

But how many gallons were sold with lead added? I would imagine that is quite substantial number, so in the end we are talking about large sums of money...

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#35

Post by Ekaros »

nradov wrote: post #24
paulpauper wrote: post #19

The Brilliant Inventor Who Made Two of History’s Biggest Mistakes Biggest ever? more than nuclear weapons? A bit of a stretch to say ever. I think this is disputable.

Nuclear weapons were not a mistake.

Mistake was anti-proliferation. If every country had nukes wold would be much more peaceful place. Would Iraq or Afganistan got involved if they had capability to deliver nuke to fight enemy combatants in NYC or DC?

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#36

Post by Weneedlead »

chuankl wrote: post #11

The absolute terrible thing about leaded gasoline is that they were already aware of several other additives (including ethanol, IIRC) that have the desired anti-knocking properties. But they went with tetraethyl lead anyway because it is cheaper and provided a few cents more profit per gallon. A cent was worth more back then than it does now, but still :-(

[flagged]

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#37

Post by pavlov »

Since this is HN, there’s always the contrarian comment that goes “actually these things are awesome and you should be ashamed for not respecting them” — even if the topic is leaded gasoline and CFCs.

You can never know if that comment will be at the top, or showdead-only at the very bottom. That’s what makes it so exciting to open the comments.

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#38

Post by noduerme »

Weneedlead wrote: post #36
chuankl wrote: post #11

The absolute terrible thing about leaded gasoline is that they were already aware of several other additives (including ethanol, IIRC) that have the desired anti-knocking properties. But they went with tetraethyl lead anyway because it is cheaper and provided a few cents more profit per gallon. A cent was worth more back then than it does now, but still :-(

[flagged]

> never get drunk psychologically

What? It's hard to make heads or tails of this comment. Are you saying that asocial psychopaths wouldn't exist if we'd kept lead in gasoline?

[edit] also realizing this is this account's first HN post... I probably shouldn't be responding

Re: Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons

#39

Post by [deleted] »

inasio wrote: post #21

Not so one-sided, Fritz Haber [0] is another very interesting chemist. Got a Nobel prize for the process to synthesize ammonia (modern fertilizer production), but then also got side tracked with the 1st world war and became the father of chemical warfare [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber

[deleted]
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