Talk:Thomas Midgley, Jr.

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if im correct CFCs are still used in asthma inhalers and are one of the acceptable applications-Ricky(barcode)

Is the ironic death line really necessary? I think it could be worded better.

I'd say that if we wanted to remove the comic slant it would be more appropriate to get rid of the two topics "career" and "aftermath", as though he were some kind of natural disaster. I think they should stay, given the damage he's done to the planet. - Patrick

There's one explicit reference (and a few implicit ones) to the "environmental danger of CFCs", but the word "ozone" does not appear in the article. I'm not saying the whole CFCs article needs to be duplicated here, but surely there's somewhere appropriate to insert the phrase "ozone depletion". - Roy

[edit] Smell

A physics teacher of mine once told us that the work with petrol and lead meant that Midgley was not someone you would want to share a railway carriage with. Any corroboration on this? GraemeLeggett 11:43, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I recall this too; it was in our school A-Level Chemistry book. It's about tellurium. When he was working systematically through the periodic table for anti-knock additives, it was one of the promising possibilities: except it was absorbed through the skin, causing a strong garlic odour. Confirmation here (PDF): "Three years later their hopes soared when they found that tellurium was effective. But tellurium reeked so of garlic that for weeks Ket’s boys were banned from society and were unwelcome in their own homes 86.143.209.12 02:34, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Dimethyltelluride would be the culprit. Man, this guy has got to be the unluckiest chemist in the world. Two of the most regrettable chemicals of the 20th century... — Jack · talk · 15:12, Friday, 6 April 2007

[edit] Caverns

Interesting biographical oddment here, about the catacombs Midgley had built on his estate. 86.143.209.12 02:34, 29 January 2006 (UTC)