TOP 10 inventions that killed their creators

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sometimes, in order to come up with something new, you need to be not only inventive, but also risky. And, despite the potential danger, the creators themselves test the work of their offspring. Unfortunately, sometimes this is the last thing they did in their life. Let us bring to your attention 10 inventions, the tests of which ended tragically for their authors.

1. Submarine Horace Hunley

Already in the second half of the 19th century, people dreamed of deep-sea diving. One of those who decided to implement the idea of creating a submarine was Horace Hanley. In 1861, he built the first prototype of a submarine. The design process and the design of the apparatus itself were strictly classified. The reason lay in plans for the further use of the invention - Hunley's submarines were intended for military purposes. According to Novate.ru, the submarines were going to be used for combat missions during the American Civil War.

However, fate was not too supportive of the inventor and his brainchildren. The first prototype was destroyed, but not because of design errors, but out of fear that it might fall into the hands of the enemy. The second submarine sank due to external damage to the hull. Horace Hanley decided to test the third model personally. And at first, the prototype not only did not sink, but also completed the combat mission: it destroyed the enemy ship. However, the next voyage ended tragically for the apparatus and its author - the submarine "caught" an enemy shell and went to the bottom together with the crew.

2. The aircraft of Otto Lilienthal

Glider by Otto Lilienthal.

A little more than a hundred years ago, man still managed to get off the ground and take off. But earlier, numerous attempts were made to conquer the air element with the help of bulky aircraft with huge wings. Among those who dreamed of lifting a person high into the sky was Otto Lilienthal.

As a talented engineer, he created more than one flying device. And although they often looked so intimidating that they looked like monsters, they still could take off with a person “on board”. He preferred to experience his masterpieces, which Lilienthal called "gliders". And once such a flight ended extremely unsuccessfully: in 1896, an engineer fell to the ground, due to the fact that the engine of the apparatus he was testing stalled right in the air.

3. "Rocket" into space Wang Hu

Another "flying inventor" was the Chinese official, Wang Hu. But his attempt to conquer the sky took place about five hundred years before it actually succeeded, and in technology it was more like a modern rocket launch. However, instead of the desired flight into space, tragedy occurred.

It was like this: Wang Hu came up with an apparatus for launching a man into space, which was a chair with 47 powder rockets and kites attached. The inventor decided to test his creation himself - he sat down in a chair and ordered his servants to set fire to the rockets. They complied with the order, and instead of launching they saw a strong explosion. When the smoke cleared, there was neither Wang Hu nor his unit anywhere at the "start" site. The servants might have thought that their master flew into space, but the ashes and scraps of his robe on the ground spoke of the unfortunate end of the unlucky natural scientist.

4. Sailing battleship HMS Captain Cooper Phips

The battleship that killed its creator.

Cooper Phipps was a prominent British shipbuilder of his day. His next ship promised to be a quality addition to the Royal Navy, but this time fortune turned away from the inventor, which cost him his life. The sailing battleship HMS Captain, designed by Phipps, entered the British Navy in 1869 and lasted only a year in this status.

Problems with the ship began from the very beginning of its operation - it turned out that due to a banal lack of stability, the ship could not perform combat missions on the high seas. But it was decided to carry out tests on "big water". Phipps himself took part in them, but this event ended in disaster: in the open sea, the ship swayed strongly and ultimately capsized, sank. Only 18 crew members managed to escape, while the rest of the ship was dragged to the bottom, including Cooper Phips.

5. Sylvester Roper's moped

Engineer Sylvester Roper has been inventing and making something all his life. And his skills and talent were enough to design a variety of devices. But among the traits of his character was real recklessness, which sometimes pushed him to eccentric and at the same time dangerous actions. Because the process of Roper's construction of the first moped, the tests of which became fatal for him, can hardly be called a manifestation of common sense.

It is often believed that inventions are the lot of young and energetic people. Sylvester Roper clearly decided to prove the opposite. As a seventy-year-old man, he came up with the idea of attaching a steam engine he had assembled to his bicycle. Moreover, Roper undertook to independently test his next invention. However, it also became the last for him. Surprisingly, in this case it was not the engine that let down, but another “motor” - when Roper reached a speed of 60 km / h on his moped, his heart stopped beating, most likely from an overload.

6. Wooden wings of Abu Nasr Ismail ibn Hammad al Jawari

In the Middle Ages, Abu Nasr Ismail ibn Hammad al Jawari was famous in the Middle East as a philologist - as a famous lexicographer, he compiled an explanatory dictionary of the Arabic language. But suddenly, for reasons unknown to this day, he decided to “retrain” as a designer. This change of activity ended in failure.

Abu Nasr Ismail ibn Hammad al Jawari invented and made wooden wings with his own hands, with the help of which he was going to soar into the sky. He put on this structure, climbed onto the roof of the mosque in the city of Nishapur and jumped off. However, instead of the expected flight, the inventor fell down and died from his injuries.

7. "Titanic" by Thomas Andrews Jr

The most famous sunken ship went down with one of its creators.

The talented Irish shipbuilder Thomas Andrews Jr. was brought in to build the largest ship of his time. He was absolutely sure of the safety of the liner, and therefore went on a transatlantic voyage. But instead of a great triumph, a tragedy came out, which is still remembered. And Andrews Jr. was one of the victims of the catastrophe of the world famous "Titanic".

As it turned out later, the steamer had a number of design flaws, among which low-quality steel for cladding stood out - it lost strength at low temperatures. When the Titanic began to sink, Thomas Andrews Jr. refused to leave the ship, despite repeated offers to evacuate. He helped over 700 passengers to get into the boats, and he went to the bottom with his brainchild.

8. Valerian Abakovsky's air car

In the early 1920s, Russian inventor Valerian Abakovsky designed a unique means of transportation for Soviet officials - an air car. The grandiose design was a railcar equipped with an engine and an aircraft propeller. Such improvements allowed this unusual transport to develop a huge speed for those times - up to 140 km / h. The car was put on rails to deliver the party leadership from Tula to Moscow.

And the first "voyage" was quite successful. But the luck of the author and his masterpiece ended there. And the fault of the invention in the tragedy that happened is not. On the way back, the air car went off the rails, and the whole team, including Abakovsky, died. Poor quality of the railway track is called the cause of the disaster.

9. Franz Reichelt's parachute

Ambition killed the French tailor.

This man was neither an engineer nor a designer at all. But he had a big dream - a flight with a safe landing. For its implementation, Franz Reichelt decided to choose a very original path - he mastered the profession of a tailor in order to be able to sew the world's first parachute. It took about two years to sew a full-fledged model for testing.

All this time, Reichelt, who lived in an apartment on the fifth floor, more than once "tested" prototypes of his parachutes, dropping mannequins with them from the window. These tests went on with varying success. And so in 1912 he received permission to jump from the Eiffel Tower. Many Parisians came to see this. It was not possible to dissuade the ambitious tailor-engineer, and he nevertheless jumped off. However, the parachute did not open, and Reichelt fell from a great height in front of dozens of people. It was not possible to save the hapless inventor.

10. "Capsule" by Karel Soucek

A waterfall remains one of the most dangerous natural phenomena today. Few people even just felt the desire to conquer this seething stream that flies from a great height. Still, there were such daredevils. One of them was the Canadian Karel Souchek, whose profession itself involved a risk - he worked as a stuntman. In 1984, he conceived the idea of descending Niagara Falls with the help of a large red barrel, which the inventor himself called a "capsule", and survive.

The extreme event was more or less successful - having flown 300 meters in height, Souchek survived, having escaped with injuries. But a year later, he decided to repeat his experiment in new conditions - now the venue was the Texas Astrodom stadium. The stuntman descended from a height of 85 meters into a container of water, and the whole stunt was broadcast live. But the experiment ended tragically: the barrel did not fall into the water, falling from a great height directly to the ground, and Karel Souchek died from his injuries a few minutes after he was taken out of his "capsule".