11 Inventors Who Invented Their Deaths: Killed By their Inventions

There are many inventors killed by their inventions or as we prefer to call them inventors who invented their own deaths. While some of the inventions were pure genius and still hold on till today, others were sheer madness that ended up through the windows.

Here are some inventors who were killed by their inventions

1. Franz Reichelt (Parachute)

Lived: 1879 – February 4, 1912

Born in 1879, Franz Reichelt attempted inventing a parachute. What was interesting about the man and his invention was the fact that he was only but a tailor and his invention was nothing but a wingsuit that he designed himself.

On February 4, 1912, Reichelt who was an Austrian-born French tailor decided to try out his invention by wearing his suit and climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower. He informed French authorities that he was going to use dummies, but when the time came proper, he changed his mind and decided to give it a try himself.

When his friends tried dissuading him citing things like the wind and the fact that the earlier attempts with dummies had failed, he insisted that he wanted trying it out himself. Worst still, he insisted that he waned to “try the experiment myself and without trickery, as I intend to prove the worth of my invention.” That was what he said when advice to use a rope.

Immediately he took the jump, the parachute wrapped around him, and he fell to the ground 187 feet below him and died instantly. The cause of death was said to be a heart attack he suffered as he fell.

2. Henry Smolinski (Flying Car)

Lived: 1933 – 1973

Even though it was as far back as the 1970s, Smolinski still had a massive dream of developing a flying car, and he put together his energy into coming up with the AVE Mizar which he built between 1971 and 1973 with other engineers at his company,  Advanced Vehicle Engineers (AVE).

The idea behind it was intelligent and it was intended to make use of both a car and an aircraft’s engine to help in take off.

The body of the Skymaster was attached to a Pinto, with the wings of the plane sitting over the roof of the car while the pusher engine was up against the hatchback.

A first test was done by pilot Charles “Red” Janisse in 1973, and Smolinsky easily said A woman can easily put the two systems together – or separate them – without help”

Even though there were unanswered questions about the whole thing since the previous test was not smooth, on September 11, Smolinsky and his friend Hal Blake decided to try another prototype of the car themselves since Janisse was not around.

A couple of minutes after takeoff, the wings of the plane folded and the car fell onto a parked truck and busted into flame. The two friends died instantly.

3. Thomas Andrews (Titanic)

Lived: 1873 to 15 April 1912

If you know anything about the Titanic, it was the idea of this great businessman and ship maker. It was in 1908 that the work for the Titanic and another ship, Olympic which was conceived by his uncle, Lord Pirrie, began.

By 1912, the Titanic had set off to cross the Atlantic with Thomas Andrews who was the chief designer on it.

When the ship had a collision with an iceberg, Andrews was called to assess the damage, and he pointed out to Captain Edward Smith that it was over for the ship as it was definitely going to sink.

After the crash, Tommie as he was called, “advised passengers to put heavy clothing, prepare to leave the vessel. Many skeptical about seriousness damage, but impressed by Andrews’ knowledge, personality, followed his advice, saved their lives. He assisted many women, children to lifeboats. When last seen, officers say was throwing overboard deck chairs, other objects, to people in the water. His chief concern safety of everyone but himself.”

It was in the ship that he died, but his body was never recovered.

4. Horace Lawson Hunley (Submarine)

Lived: June 20, 1823 – October 15, 1863

Hunley became popular as a marine engineer in the Confederate States of America, but he was better known as the inventor of the first war submarine.

Hunley created three different prototypes for the use f the Confederate states during th civil war. While with the first it was sun after New Orleans where it was made fell into the hands of the unions, the second as well got sunk on its own.

It was, however, in the third make that Horace Lawson Hunley along with a 7-member crew, sunk to death on October 15, 1963. The submarine was later reused in the successful sinking of the USS Housatonic in 1964. This was to be the first time a ship would be sunk by a submarine.

5. Otto Lilienthal (Flying Machine)

Lived: 1848 – 10 August 1896

Before the Wright brothers could invent the plane, Otto Lilienthal began trying to make a machine that could actually fly. The engineer whose efforts towards making the flying machine got people into believing that someday a thing like that could be invented.

He was able to carry out various testings of his machine and has been known to have the first successful flights with unpowered airplanes. It was in such trials that the man who was nicknamed the flying man crashed during a flight from Göllenberg near Stölln in Brandenburg. At the time, the man was only 48 years old, and he died a day after the crash.

6. James Fuller Fixx (Running)

Lived: (1932 – July 20, 1984)

We all know that running was an invention of our ancestors who were forced into it for the reasons of hunting and gathering and for the reason of protecting themselves. Nevertheless, one person who has changed what running is and has revolutionalized it as a sport is James Fuller Fixx. He is credited for the craze that has come to be associated with running after he published his book,  The Complete Book of Running. The work has helped in getting people to develop an interest in running and be a part of it.

Unfortunately for him, it was during one of his early morning runs on July 20, 1984, when he was just 52 that he collapsed and died. The cause of his death was given as Blockage of his coronary artery as a result of atherosclerosis.

7. James Douglas (Maiden, Beheading Machine)

Lived: (1516 – 2 June 1581)

Another of the inventors killed by their inventions is James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton. His death is more of an irony than anything else. A great soldier who had won a number of wars, James Douglas designed a beheading machine, the Maiden which came before the guillotine.

When he was moving to Scotland from England, it was said that he brought it personally because of how much he appreciated the clean work of the machine. Unfortunately for him, however, he would be condemned by the court of the assize after he was accused of taking a part in the murder of Henry Stuart Duke of Albany who was also referred to as Darnley. As a result of this, he would go on to lose his head literally to the same instrument that he had lost his head in love for.

8. Li Si (5 Death Punishment)

Lived: 280 BC – 208 BC

Another classic case, but this time or karma, among those killed by their inventions, is the case of Li Si, who like James Douglas, invented a means of killing people.

A man who was swift in his words and deeds, he quickly found favor with the king during the reign of the Qin Dynasty. He rose to power becoming the chancellor to the king and later the first emperor of the dynasty.

A writer, politician, and notable calligrapher, he was also an inventor, even though not of something good, but of death. Like the cunning fellow that he was, he could get the king to bribe his enemies and kill those who refused to be bribed, and considering his rise, he was regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the Chinese.

His invention was the 5 death punishment which would see a person tortured to death. The method was involved tattooing the person involved, then chopping off of one’s nose, followed by amputation of one or both feet. This was then followed by castration and finally, the person would be chopped into two.

Li Si, who grew to become a trickster by lying to neighboring nations and making them subjects. He was known for burning of books that he didn’t believe in, but he would be known more for being killed by his invention after he was charged with treason and tortured into accepting it.

9. Alexander Bogdanov (Blood Transfusion)

Lived: (1873- 7 April 1928)

Described as the man who was ready to delve into things that were not cool before they became cool, Alexander Bogdanov was a lot of things all in one. He was a politician, a writer, poet, and medical practitioner who promoted communism. He worked on how technology would come to take over the daily works of people while people would have culture and other things to work on.

Just as he was a genius, he was also very notorious. This is as among other things he did, in 1907 he worked with Lenin to rob the Tiflis bank.

He was so much involved in a lot of medical research works, but the one that caught his fancy was the idea of blood transfusion. At the start of it all, things went great for him, when he began transfusing blood into himself. He claimed that with his invention, he could definitely see much better and in fact, his sensesweree much better than they had ever been. More so, he claimed that he had stopped balding and his friends told him he was sure looking years younger.

The problem, though, was that with the ease with which he could transfuse blood, there was no way for him to test the blood. As a result of this, he infused himself with the blood of a student who had malaria and tuberculosis. This was what led to the death of the World War 1 veteran. The irony was that the student involved survived.

10. William Bullock (Rotary Press)

Lived: (1813 – April 12, 1867)

Although he didn’t invent the rotary printing press, William Bullock made so many improvements to it that a lot of people get to think he was the actual inventor. That stated, he brought a massive improvement to it so much that it has gone on to change everything about printing press forever. This is because his improvement had helped the machine to be more efficient and fast.

The difference between his story and that of many others who got killed by their inventions is that his own was not something that was between life and death. However, his leg got crushed when he was trying to kick the driving belt of the machine into a pulley after fixing it. As a result of the injury, he caught gangrene which needed that the leg be amputated. It was during the operation that he lost his life.

11. Marie Curie (Radioactivity)

Lived: (1867 – July 4, 1934)

It was not only men that sacrificed their lives for their inventions. Marie Curie was not just your typical great scientist, she was among the 4 scientists to have ever gotten the Nobel Prize twice. Apart from this, she was the first woman to win the prize and the only to win it twice, just as she was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. The simple meaning of all these is that she was a woman who walked a path many would not.

Also known as Marie Skłodowska Curie, she was a polish and French physicist and chemist who was famous for her research work in various fields including on radioactivity. It was her exposure to it that was believed to have led to her death in 1934 after she contacted aplastic anemia.