A look at people who were killed by their own inventions. We will catalogue great minds who amazed the world with their inventions. They unfortunately passed on through their own inventions.
These deaths often happened through trial moments. Though they are dead, many of these inventions were later perfected and are changing the world now.
A look at people who were killed by their own inventions
Franz Reichelt:
He was born in 1879 and died in 1912,of course died a fall through a fall.
Franz Reichelt was Known as the Flying Tailor. “TAilaor ” as he was known allegedly jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing his home-made parachute. He was sure his invention of the best quality but destiny had already decided an unfortunate fate for his very first flight.
The police authoritties gave him the permission with an assumption that Franz would use a dummy to demonstrate his custom-designed parachute . But Franz rather took the job himself and become one of the people who’s inventions took their lives in a rather unfortunate manner.
Henry Smolinski
He was born in 1933, but died tragically in 1973.
The famous Smolinski took wings of the Cessna 337 aircraft and attached them to a Ford Pinto with an intention to create a flying car.
Flying car that was not to be. The car which was christened the AVE Mizar was manufactured by Henry’s company Advanced Vehicle Engineers. Henry along with his beloved friend Hal Blake, took it for a test flight and died in a crash.
The invention was capable of flying at 12,000 feet above the ground at 130 mph. Its dashboard was modified with additions like fuel pressure gauges, an altimeter, radio navigational equipment.
On paper, one could go more than 1000 miles in that thing which had both car and flight engines packed inside.
Smolinski’s invention, the “Pinto Craft” struck the top of a tree and crashed into a pickup truck before bursting into flames, a witness had recalled the unfortunate incident.
His fatality with his friend in what had promised to be a memorable moment, however closed the doors for the AVE Mizar to be featured in a Bond movie.
William Bullock
The American inventor Bullock was born in 1813. He died on April 12, 1867.
William had created a rotary printing press machine in which the images to be printed were put on a roller and then could be printed on any substrate.
Not satisfied with it after a few years. He decided to work on it a little and it was this moment which got his foot crushed into the new machine during an ongoing installation.
William unfortunately died later during an amputation process after his foot had developed gangrene.
Horace Lawson Hunley
Horace was born on June 20, 1823 and died on October 15, 1863 at the age of 40.
He was a marine engineer in the Confederate States of America and was the proud inventor of the first war submarine.
Horace Lawson on a usual routine test along with a 7-member crew, sunk to death in a previously damaged submarine H. L. Hunley (named after Hunley’s death) on October 15, 1963.
This submarine was later reused in the successful sinking of the USS Housatonic in 1964 barely a year after Horace death.
Karel Soucek
He was a Czech-Canadian daredevil who was shot to fame in 1984. This was after he became the first famous stuntman in 23 years to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. With a barrel, you may ask and the answer is yes.
The invention was a key custom-designed, plastic and metal cylinder. Soucek counterweighted at one end so it would remain upright as he plunged over the falls.
He would then climbed into the barrel and his assistants will pushed him into the water. He then sped downstream at 75 miles an hour and just 3.2 seconds later, Soucek was at the bottom of the falls. he was of course bruised but triumphant.
Happy after the first fall, he decide to go for the second and third had the second been successful.
However things went horribly awry a few months later when, Soucek went back in a new barrel of his own design.
He arranged to be dropped as usual, but now from the roof of the Houston Astrodome into a vat of water.
As the journey began and he was released from the ceiling. The barrel began to spin off kilter and dropped 180 feet, landing away from the target. He died later at the hospital from that trauma and injuries.
Harry Smolinski
Harry Smolinski also tried his inventory power by trying to invent a vehicle. The famous aeronautical engineer as you may want to call him had a successful career designing jet aircraft and rockets, and in the early 1970s.
With this great success, he became obsessed with building a flying car. But rather creating the whole thing from scratch which was time consuming, Smolinski wanted to design lightweight wings and a tail that could be bolted on to customers’ existing cars for flight.
He then removed for regular driving. His prototype was constructed out of a Cessna twin-engine plane and a Ford Pinto. The team actually acknowledged that there were problems with the idea. They were confident that they had the problems at hand and proclaimed “we feel we have the answers.”
Smolinski and a co-pilot took his Ford-Cessna combo out for a spin from California’s Ventura County Airport on September 11, 1973 in a journey of no return. Moments after takeoff, the airport manager saw a column of black smoke rising from the site of a crash. Bad welding and some loose parts were blamed for the fatal accident.
