OM Backroads: Ep. 100. Thomas Midgley: The Ohio Inventor Who Almost Ended the World
In this episode of Ohio Mysteries Backroads, we explore the complicated legacy of one of Ohio’s most consequential — and controversial — inventors: Thomas Midgley Jr..
Born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania but raised and educated in Ohio, Midgley graduated from Cornell University before launching a career that would change the modern world. Working with Charles Kettering at Dayton Research Laboratoriesin Dayton, Midgley helped solve one of the automobile industry’s biggest problems — engine knock — by introducing tetraethyl lead into gasoline.
The result? The rise of “leaded gasoline,” a…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.