From the Periodic Table to Production: The Life of Thomas Midgley, Jr., The Inventor of Ethyl Gasoline and Freon Refrigerants
by Thomas Midgley, IV

In the passing of Thomas Midgley, Jr., on November 2, 1944, this nation lost one of its most creative men. His story is one of great accomplishment and contribution, and his creativity gave humankind a quality of life never achieved prior to the 20th century. He took the refrigerator from the back porch and made it safe to use in the kitchen. He put air conditioning into millions of cars, homes, hospitals, and business establishments. Today's high-performance automobiles and piston-driven aircraft engines owe their evolution to his genius. His development of high-octane ethyl gasoline enabled carrier-based Army aircraft, led by Brigadier General James H. Doolittle, to bomb Tokyo in 1942 and the British to defeat the Germans in Europe. As a writer for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner exclaimed over a decade ago, “Ethyl was there when she was needed. Without her, we might still be driving around in Model T Fords.” Although only 55 when he died, Midgley crowded into his lifetime an immense amount of accomplishment, and the achievements he left behind are an important legacy to the world.