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Thomas Midgley, Jr.: Antiknock and CFC Pioneer
| Article
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16604 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1989 |
3,485 Words |
| Author
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George B. Kauffman
George B. Kauffman is professor of chemistry at California
State University, Fresno. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is a
contributing editor to four journals and the author of
fifteen
books and more than 950 articles on chemistry, the history of
science and technology, and chemical education. |
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889-1944), whose discoveries of tetraethyl lead (TEL), an antiknock gasoline additive, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFSs), a class of cheap, stable, nontoxic, nonflammable refrigerants, have required a consideration of the benefits versus risks of scientific products to society. Although his degree was in mechanical engineering, Midgley--the man of whom Charles Franklin Kettering, the head of the General Motors Research Corporation, once said, "The greatest discovery I ever made was Tom Midgley"--won his greatest fame as an industrial chemist. He received all four principal American medals for achievement in chemistry and was elected president of the American Chemical Society in 1944, the year of his death.
Thomas Midgley, Jr. was born on May 18, 1889, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. When Midgley was six, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he attended public school. In 1905, he entered Betts Academy, a small, private preparatory school in Greenwich, Connecticut. There he received his first instruction in chemistry and a knowledge of the periodic table, which later led him to his two greatest discoveries.
Midgley next attended Cornell University, where he majored in mechanical engineering to please his father. He received his M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in 1908 and 1911, respectively. Without waiting to attend his graduation exercises, he hurried to Dayton, Ohio, to become a draftsman and designer at the National Cash Register Company to earn enough money to marry Carrie M. Reynolds of Delaware, Ohio. The two were wed on August 3, 1911, and eventually had two children. After a year at NCR, Midgley left to help his father improve cord tires and tread design at the Midgley Tire and rubber company in Lancaster, Ohio. He soon became chief engineer and later superintendent, but the company was financially unsuccessful and quickly went out of business.
Kettering had previously headed the inventions department at NCR, and during his year there Midgley learned of the developments made under Kettering's guidance. Midgley, therefore, decided on a career in research and in 1916 joined the Dayton Eengineering Laboratories Company (Delco), which Kettering had established to develop his own inventions and to manufacture starting, lighting, and ignition equipment for automobiles.
The Search for an Antiknock Agent
Because of fire laws prohibiting the storage of gasoline,
...
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