# Inventions Which Killed Their Creators **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 29, 2008, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334 "2008-04-29T09:36:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/41 "2008-04-30T11:30:54Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > [Franz Reichelt] told authorities that he was going to use a dummy to test the invention, but at the last minute he strapped himself in and jumped to his death in front of a large crowd of spectators. He may have lied about the mannequin, but he was telling the truth about the dummy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Surb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/42 "2008-04-30T13:46:46Z")
While it’s not an invention, I submit [this](http://www.topix.net/denver/2008/02/long-delayed-sculpture-arrives-at-denver-airport) \*\*Long-Delayed Sculpture Arrives At Denver Airport A long-delayed sculpture of a mustang by the late Luis Jimenez has arrived at Denver International Airport. Jimenez died in his Hondo, New Mexico studio in June 2006 after he was pinned under a section of the piece that came loose from a hoist. Work continued under the direction of his family.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/43 "2008-04-30T15:40:01Z")
As for Dr. Atkins, he became very ill and his body bloated up with water it couldn’t dump. Hence, in his final terminal coma-like state he was pretty heavy and yucky. There was a rather dishonest mortician or something who weighed his post-death body counting all the excess fluids and “proved” the diet to be false. Pretty gruesome way to cheat on an argument. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/44 "2008-04-30T16:52:24Z")
[QUOTE=The Surb] While it’s not an invention, I submit [this](http://www.topix.net/denver/2008/02/long-delayed-sculpture-arrives-at-denver-airport) \*\*Long-Delayed Sculpture Arrives At Denver Airport A long-delayed sculpture of a mustang by the late Luis Jimenez has arrived at Denver International Airport. Jimenez died in his Hondo, New Mexico studio in June 2006 after he was pinned under a section of the piece that came loose from a hoist. Work continued under the direction of his family.\*\* [/QUOTE] Have you seen that godawful thing? It’s hideous. I wonder whether Jimenez’ death wasn’t an attempt at divine intervention. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/45 "2008-04-30T17:25:52Z")
He’s still alive, but chances are pretty good that [David Hahn, aka The Radioactive Boy Scout,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) will suffer from radiation exposure while building a fast breeder reactor in his parent’s back yard. He was arrested last year for stealing smoke detectors (presumably for their radioactive components) and he looks terrible in the [mug shot.](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292111,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/46 "2008-04-30T19:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] [QUOTE=bonzer] [Probably apocryphal](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=257242) [/QUOTE] [http://www.activefarming.org/6304391579/Guillotine.html](http://www.activefarming.org/6304391579/Guillotine.html) That’s the video I have. IIRC there’s a neurosurgeon who states that the nerves, muscles, etc. for blinking the eyes are all intact after decapitation and it takes 15 seconds or so for the oxygen supply to the brain to be used up. [/QUOTE] And I suspect that’s _ **exactly** _ the documentary and neuroscientist Cecil had no luck with in [the very column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_262.html) cited in the linked thread: > [@](#): > > A lot of people disputed my claim that victims of the guillotine blacked out immediately. Many had seen a TV show on the Discovery Channel called “The Guillotine” in which a medical expert tells the story above, with the added detail that the scientist was the pioneering French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was beheaded during the Reign of Terror in 1794. > > Not likely. There is no mention of the blinking incident in the standard biographies of Lavoisier. The expert quoted on the TV show, neurosurgeon Robert Fink, says he heard the story from a colleague. The colleague says he read it in a book, but can’t remember which. He admits the story may be apocryphal. And note that the story can be judged probably apocryphal not because there’s necessarily anything biologically impossible about it. The grounds for doubt are because no-one repeating it ever seems to be able to provide historical evidence about Lavoisier for it being true. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/47 "2008-04-30T19:27:30Z")
[QUOTE=Staggerlee] Nobody seems to have mentioned Sir Francis Bacon who is said to have died of frostbite having ‘invented’ the preservation of food via freezing by stuffing a chicken full of snow. It’s not mentioned on Wikipedia - is it simply not true? [/QUOTE] It was probably pneumonia rather than frostbite, but the circumstances are well attested. There’s even a letter dictated by Bacon on his deathbed reporting that the experiment was otherwise a success. (A case of publish _and_ perish?) As an aside, Terry Gilliam now lives in the house on the site of the one in which he died. The appropriately Pythonesque touch to the story is that’s there’s the very dubious legend that the Highgate village green, across the road from the house, is [haunted by the ghost of the chicken](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A14042099). ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/48 "2008-04-30T21:11:04Z")
wasn’t there a fellow named Petard…something involving a hoist? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/49 "2008-04-30T21:20:58Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] I submit to you God, in the form of Jesus. According to the bible he invented man who then killed him. [/QUOTE] And then he went and called a mulligan! OK There is that guy who built a robot to kill him. Does that count? Then there is that bear suit guy who’s invention didn’t quite work. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/50 "2008-04-30T22:57:36Z")
If only we knew who invented stupid, we’d know the biggest killer of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/51 "2008-05-01T01:13:45Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] I like the bit where they measure the depth of the crater he made. He definitely made an “impression.”] [/QUOTE] You’d think the guy would have had enough foresight to find a nearby bridge and try a water landing first. He would have lived, although he would have been clearly in Seine. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/52 "2008-05-01T08:51:19Z")
[QUOTE=Washoe] You’d think the guy would have had enough foresight to find a nearby bridge and try a water landing first. He would have lived, although he would have been clearly in Seine. [/QUOTE] You should be punished for that. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/53 "2008-05-01T09:10:11Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] He definitely made an “impression.” [/QUOTE] It’s like a real life version of The Onion Horoscopes; “You will make a big impression today. Unfortunately, you’ll make it with your head. In the tarmac.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/54 "2008-05-01T13:45:23Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] As for Dr. Atkins, he became very ill and his body bloated up with water it couldn’t dump. Hence, in his final terminal coma-like state he was pretty heavy and yucky. There was a rather dishonest mortician or something who weighed his post-death body counting all the excess fluids and “proved” the diet to be false. Pretty gruesome way to cheat on an argument. [/QUOTE] [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/medical/doctor/atkins.asp) says the rumors of the causes of the death of Dr. Atkins is “undetermined.” The direct cause of his death was slipping on the ice and hitting his head. Whether the condition of his body had anything to do with it has never been determined. Would he have died if he hadn’t been following the diet? Who can tell? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/55 "2008-05-01T13:58:04Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] He’s still alive, but chances are pretty good that [David Hahn, aka The Radioactive Boy Scout,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) will suffer from radiation exposure while building a fast breeder reactor in his parent’s back yard. He was arrested last year for stealing smoke detectors (presumably for their radioactive components) and he looks terrible in the [mug shot.](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292111,00.html) [/QUOTE] So he’s just full on crazy now, eh? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/56 "2008-05-01T16:04:08Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/medical/doctor/atkins.asp) says the rumors of the causes of the death of Dr. Atkins is “undetermined.” The direct cause of his death was slipping on the ice and hitting his head. Whether the condition of his body had anything to do with it has never been determined. Would he have died if he hadn’t been following the diet? Who can tell? [/QUOTE] Your diet doesn’t have much to do with either causing or recovering from blunt force trauma. ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/57 "2008-05-01T17:16:56Z")
If you want to bring up fictional inventors a main protagonist in Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut was killed by his own invention Ice Nine. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/58 "2008-05-01T17:21:19Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] Your diet doesn’t have much to do with either causing or recovering from blunt force trauma. [/QUOTE] Depends how messy an eater you are. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/59 "2008-05-01T17:24:39Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] Your diet doesn’t have much to do with either causing or recovering from blunt force trauma. [/QUOTE] But it might affect your sense of balance, and maybe make your bones more brittle. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334/60 "2008-05-01T18:41:46Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] You should be punished for that. [/QUOTE] I believe that a special place in Hell has already been reserved, thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-which-killed-their-creators/447334.md?page=4)