In 1925, General Motors found that they needed to improve their engine performance as a way to compete with Ford’s new and more powerful Cadillac. The octane boosting properties of Tetraethyl Lead (known as TEL) had been discovered in 1921 by General Motors’ chief chemist Thomas Midgley, who suggested adding it to petrol as an […]
Category Archives: Medicine
The Radium Girls
The discovery of radium in 1898 by Marie Curie was followed by a craze for all things radium as people rushed to find commercial applications for this new and exciting element. During the 1910s, glow in the dark products took the public by storm, with glowing clocks and watch dials becoming extremely popular. A Glowing […]
Ergotism: The Mystery of St Anthony’s Fire
Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye and other cereal crops when conditions are unusually damp. Before the discovery of the fungus, ergot poisoning caused several outbreaks of illness that at the time were either unexplained or attributed to supernatural phenomena. Ergot poisoning has two distinct types of symptoms; convulsive ergotism presents with tingling […]
Nerves of Steel: The Doctor who Removed his own Appendix
On 29th April 1961, Leonid Rogozov was faced with a decision that nobody would want to make. He had developed acute appendicitis, and knew that his appendix would have to be removed or he would almost certainly die. There was just one problem; he was the only doctor within 1600 miles. Complete Isolation Leonid Rogozov […]
The Victorians and Arsenic
The advent of the industrial revolution at the beginning of the 19th century saw new manufacturing processes which were able to turn out products on a never before seen scale. Arsenic was a by-product of the mining and smelting industry, and began to be produced in enormous quantities during the 1800s. Arsenic was already a […]
More Harm than Good: A Brief History of Diethylstilbestrol
From paracetamol to penicillin, the discovery of new drugs and medications has helped to cure countless diseases and alleviate symptoms for almost every condition imaginable. The early twentieth century in particular saw a huge wave of new medicines created and introduced. However, flawed experiments, incorrect assumptions, and sometimes plain negligence meant that some drugs ended […]