CHEMIST

Thomas Midgley Jr.

1889 - 1944

Photo of Thomas Midgley Jr.

Icon of person Thomas Midgley Jr.

Thomas Midgley Jr. (May 18, 1889 – November 2, 1944) was an American mechanical and chemical engineer. He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (tetraethyl lead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the United States by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned from common use due to their harmful impact on human health and the environment. He was granted more than 100 patents over the course of his career. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Thomas Midgley Jr. is the 90th most popular chemist (up from 285th in 2019), the 480th most popular biography from United States (up from 1,805th in 2019) and the 14th most popular American Chemist.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Thomas Midgley Jr. by language

Loading...

Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Thomas Midgley Jr. ranks 90 out of 602. Before him are Friedrich Bergius, Hans Fischer, James B. Sumner, Richard Laurence Millington Synge, J. D. Bernal, and Ernst Otto Fischer. After him are Theodor Svedberg, Valery Legasov, M. Stanley Whittingham, Edward Adelbert Doisy, Heinrich Otto Wieland, and Theodore William Richards.

Most Popular Chemists in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1889, Thomas Midgley Jr. ranks 17. Before him are Paul Karrer, Ante Pavelić, Anna Akhmatova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Igor Sikorsky. After him are Manuel II of Portugal, Claude Rains, Gabriela Mistral, Idris of Libya, Carl von Ossietzky, and Gabriel Marcel. Among people deceased in 1944, Thomas Midgley Jr. ranks 20. Before him are Hilma af Klint, Reza Shah, Bertha Benz, Lou Henry Hoover, Alexis Carrel, and Ludwig Beck. After him are Galeazzo Ciano, Erwin von Witzleben, Manuel L. Quezon, Ernst Thälmann, Michael Wittmann, and Marc Bloch.

Others Born in 1889

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1944

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Thomas Midgley Jr. ranks 480 out of 20,380. Before him are Oliver Stone (1946), Frank Herbert (1920), Sandra Bullock (1964), Robert Lucas Jr. (1937), Julia Roberts (1967), and Edith Wilson (1872). After him are Sidney Poitier (1927), Paul Samuelson (1915), J. J. Cale (1938), Clifford Shull (1915), John Bardeen (1908), and Susan Sontag (1933).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among CHEMISTS In United States

Among chemists born in United States, Thomas Midgley Jr. ranks 14. Before him are Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. (1915), John Howard Northrop (1891), Wendell Meredith Stanley (1904), Gertrude B. Elion (1918), Robert S. Mulliken (1896), and James B. Sumner (1887). After him are Edward Adelbert Doisy (1893), Theodore William Richards (1868), William Howard Stein (1911), Stanford Moore (1913), Vincent du Vigneaud (1901), and Irving Langmuir (1881).

American born Chemists

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous