After reading this (sorry & respect to the family):

Segway boss Jimi Heselden dies in scooter cliff fall

Just wondered, what other inventors have been killed by their own invention?

not sure on inventors but wasnt Marie Curie killed eventually by her work with radioactive materials?

He didn’t invent it though, did he?
(sorry & respect to the family and all that)

Kirkpatrick killed someone else with his bike and got locked up for a long time, didn’t he?

Ture Higgo, but you get the idea…

Oh, and what about Dr Frankenstein? Did he actually get killed by the monster or was it just his little sister?

It’s very sad but also just a tad funny, or is it just me 🙂

Icarus.

try this:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=inventors+killed+by+their+own+invention

Always remember this one:
Thomas Midgley, Jr. (May 18, 1889 – November 2, 1944), was an American mechanical engineer turned chemist. He developed both the tetraethyl lead (TEL) additive to gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and held over a hundred patents.
In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted polio which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his death when he was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55. Wiki
Some may say Kama…..

Marie Curie perhaps?

And heard this on QI, the guy who put lead in petrol and invented CFGs..

Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889–1944) was an American engineer and chemist who contracted polio at age 51, leaving him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his death when he was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.

Edit: Lionheart beat me to it.

Some may say Kama…..

Why tf?

It’s very sad but also just a tad funny, or is it just me

Yes mate. Just an accident – he could’ve been mtbing or anythign.

Why tf?

Because he put lead in petrol and invented CFGs, he did the most environmental damage ever.

Did he know he was causing environmental damage?

Because he put lead in petrol and invented CFGs, he did the most environmental damage ever.

only surpassed by these lot. 🙂

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-have-a-heater-in-their-garageshed

Diesel was nearly killed by one of his prototype engines.

Didn’t Roentgen, the discoverer of X-rays, eventually manage to irradiate himself to an early grave? Does that count?

Rachel

Who invented the skip?

Did he know he was causing environmental damage?

Half the factory producing TEL dropping dead and the other half contracting weird disease might have been a bit of a giveaway?

I seem to recall the inventor of them little traffic islands in the middle of the carrigeway got ran over whilst standing on one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_speed_record

surely a few of this lot were in their own inventions

Huskinson First chap to be run over by a train, because it was running to time alledgedly .

He put up the money to fund the manchester /liverpool railway, some scouse joy rider driving alledgedly. 😆

Some may say Kama…..

Presumably because that’s bed in Spanish? (OK, nearly. I’ll get my coat anyway.)

a friend of mine died after inventing a zombification syrum, sadly someone dropped one of his “creations” on his head as he walked beneth a multi story car park. the impact was fatal.

Molgrips needs to read Frankenstein!

What they didn’t tell you in the bible is that as a carpenter Jesus used to make crosses.

Automotive
William Nelson (ca. 1879?1903), a General Electric employee, invented a new way to motorize bicycles. He then fell off his prototype bike during a test run.[1]

1814: London Beer Flood, 9 people were killed when 323,000 imperial gallons (1,468,000L) of beer in the Meux and Company Brewery burst out of their vats and gushed into the streets.

1960: In the Nedelin disaster, over 100 Soviet rocket technicians and officials died when a switch was turned on unintentionally igniting the rocket. The dead included Red Army Marshal Nedelin who was seated in a deck chair just 40 meters away overseeing launch preparations. The events were filmed by automatic cameras.[78]

Otto Lilienthal – The Glider King

Mr Doodlebug was killed in a freak accident at the German V1 factory in 1944…

God killed his own son with his invention.

Apparently 😀

Half the factory producing TEL dropping dead and the other half contracting weird disease might have been a bit of a giveaway?

So toxicity = environmental damage? Right.

If he cleaned up the factory he would still not know that it caused damage in the environment. Judging a bit too easily there.

And I have read Frankenstein, but it was a while ago. The little girl wasn’t related to the Dr was she..? Don’t really remember.

Sad thread.

On a serious note:

From Wikipedia

(My additions in square brackets)

[Captain Valentine] Baker’s death affected his [business] partner deeply, so much so that pilot safety became [James] Martin’s primary focus and led to the reorganisation of the company to focus on ejection seats.

Thus were 7,283 aircrew lives in more than 93 Air Forces – Martin-Baker’s website

Alfred Nobel’s younger brother was killed by an explosion at their factory.

Oh, how could we forget M Guillotine?

The Southern Yeti – Member
Who invented the skip?

Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, no?

lionhart beat me to it, that was in Qi…

molgrips – Member
Oh, how could we forget M Guillotine?

That has to be the most ironical of all. You’ve got to wonder what he was thinking when he was put in position “Oh, good, this should be quick and painless” or “*&&^^%*(()!”

The CEO of Omni Consumer Products got brassed up by ED-209 in Robocop.

William Brodie, inventor of the trapdoor gallows.