Innovation Can Be A Killer
I have a tale of terror to tell that should act as a warning to all those who would invent. There are among us those whose minds are inclined toward brilliance, those who look at the world with a slightly different slant – inventors and entrepreneurs obsessed with the bright light of originality and who have changed the way we all live with their thoughts. But some of these gifted individuals did not survive to fully exploit their great minds, for this is the story of those who met their demise by the very things they had invented. If only they had taken the time or had the money available to them to use more effective materials or test their inventions before trying them out themselves, maybe they could have lived just that little longer. To follow are the ill-fated stories of some of these great men who proved that innovation can be a killer under some imagined ‘investment wanted’ ads that might have saved their lives.
Business investor wanted for automated off-road two-wheeled transportation.
The motorcycle was arguably invented by German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885. Not long after this, ill-fated General Electric employee William Nelson invented a motor attachment for a bicycle which he must have thought would revolutionise the way we all would get about. Unfortunately, while testing his prototype on a hillside near his father-in-law’s home he fell off and was killed instantly. Not quite the future he would have imagined for himself.
Business investor wanted for a suit that’ll let you glide gracefully down to Earth in style.
Born in 1879 in Vienna, Franz Reichelt was well and truly bitten by the aviation bug. He moved to Paris in the early 1900s and became a dressmaker by trade, but his passion for flight and his early parachuting inventions and tests earned him the now rather ironic name of the “Flying Tailor”. On the 4th February 1912, he climbed to the first deck of the Eiffel Tower (57 metres up) with police, journalists and a rather large crowd looking on to witness the first manned test of his suite-parachute (a suite he had made which would deploy wings when he extended his arms to allow him to glide down from any height). The papers the next day seemed strangely obsessed with the depth of the hole he had created in the frozen grass beneath the tower when his suite-parachute failed to deploy properly and he hurtled to his rather messy and very public demise.
Business investor wanted for printing revolution. Don’t miss out or you’ll be green with envy.
William Bullock’s web rotary printing press, invented in 1863, revolutionised the printing industry by allowing for a continuous roll of paper to feed the press, doing away with the laborious need to hand feed individual sheets. Unfortunately just four years later while installing one of his machines and using the subtle technique of kicking a driving belt onto a pulley he managed to get his leg crushed in the process. This did not kill him, but the gangrene he developed a few days later did.
Business investor wanted for lighthouse that will sweep you away.
Henry Winstanley was a merchant with a penchant for invention, especially water-based gadgets and constructions. Winstanley got more than a little vexed by the fact that he lost two of the five ships he owned on the Eddystone Rocks near Plymouth. When he was told that it was far too dangerous to build a lighthouse there the industrious Winstanley decided to build one himself. He was so proud of his creation that he was reported to have said that he would love to be inside it during the greatest storm there ever was to prove its strength. Unfortunately when the winter storm of 1703 hit he was finishing up repairs inside the lighthouse from damage caused in the previous winter. Winstanley and the structure were washed from the headland without a trace.
Business investor wanted for aviation project to put Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to shame.
The 1970s was a time of dreaming, of limitless inspiration, and, let’s face it, some crazy ideas. Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake in an inspired moment thought wouldn’t it be a good idea to splice a Ford Pinto to a twin-boom Cessna Skymaster (that’s a small plane to you and me) and create a real life flying car. If things had gone differently maybe we’d all be driving around the skies in our Ford Capris here in the UK a few years later. Unfortunately when the wings decided to detach themselves from the vehicle in midair whilst the pair were taking it on its maiden flight, this was not only the end of Henry and Hal but of their flying machine project as well.
Of course there are many others that we could have mentioned if only we had the time and space, like business investor wanted for unsinkable ship project – where the inventor was onboard the maiden voyage when it sank; business investor wanted for unstoppable plane project – where the inventor attempted to fly it over a mountain range but ended up trying out a shorter route, or business investor wanted to be apart of medical history – where a lack of understanding of radioactive particles caused the inventor to die a rather protracted and unpleasant death.
So if you’re thinking of running with your innovation and letting loose your creative spirit we say to always plan ahead, do your due diligence and ensure that the project is properly funded. Then you won’t have to cut the corners these inventors did that eventually led to their sticky end.
Image © Mitch2742
