CHED 488 |
| Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889-1944), a mechanical engineer by training, made his name and his fortune as a chemical inventor. Midgley's best known inventions, leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, can be used as touchstones to study both industrial research practices and effects of chemical invention on the larger society. Focusing on the mode of research reveals an "Edisonian" trial-and-error approach in the invention of leaded gasoline and a targeted design approach in the invention of chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants. Looking more broadly at consequences of the inventions shows that both spawned significant industries, but both eventually became highly regulated because of adverse environmental consequences. The investigation of those consequences offers additional examples of chemical research with broad effects on the larger society. |
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Lives in Science as Illustrations of Scientific Practice
1:30 PM-4:15 PM, Wednesday, 13 September 2006 San Francisco Marriott -- Salon 11, Oral
Division of Chemical Education |