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Behind every world-changing invention lurks a complex creator... Join us as we examine the brilliant minds whose dark sides often overshadow their contributions! Our countdown includes Bell's telephone, Haber's fertilizer, Edison's light bulb, and more. Which inventor's moral failings disturb you most? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00Dr. Shockley is, of course, the Nobel Prize-winning discoverer or co-discoverer of the transistor.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at major world-changing inventions whose inventors had dark, disturbing, or outright unethical streaks that history hasn't forgotten.
00:20One quickly learns all the things that Henry Ford was unhappy about.
00:27J. Marion Sims and the Vaginal Speculum
00:30He was praised as the father of modern gynecology, but the reality behind his work was nothing less than horrifying.
00:37It was an early morning strike, the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims taken down.
00:42J. Marion Sims developed various surgical techniques and instruments in the 1840s.
00:47The most notable was the vaginal speculum.
00:49Unfortunately, it wasn't Sims' invention that was inherently evil, but rather how he came about developing it,
00:55by experimenting on enslaved black women in Alabama.
00:59Sims performed surgeries without anesthesia.
01:02Well, what does it mean when you say that someone doesn't feel pain?
01:05Among other things, you're speaking about their humanity.
01:08He was said to believe that black women didn't feel pain the same way as white women did.
01:13While his medical innovations have had a lasting influence, they were developed at the expense of unimaginable suffering.
01:19Sims' legacy is now a fierce debate that questions whether we should honor his invention or forever condemn the monstrous methods behind it.
01:28It was not acceptable back then.
01:29We just did not hear from the people who protested against it.
01:33Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
01:35The telephone allowed human voices to travel instantly across large distances.
01:39It is one of the most revolutionary inventions in human history.
01:44Unlike a telegraph, a telephone would directly link people cheaply and instantly.
01:49And no one had a telegraph at home.
01:52Alexander Graham Bell is the man credited with the breakthrough.
01:55While his invention brought everyone a little closer, Bell wasn't exactly a saint.
02:00Known for his aggressive patent disputes, Bell reportedly relished in crushing rival inventors working on similar concepts, like Elisha Gray.
02:10And bit by bit, Gray began to accept the Western Union theory that he really was the inventor and that somehow or other he had been robbed.
02:17To stoke his ruthless, competitive streak, Bell used legal and financial maneuvers to ensure his name went down in history.
02:25A world without instant communication now seems unimaginable.
02:28Bell's story is a cautionary tale and reminder that innovation often comes at the cost of fairness and collaboration.
02:37In fact, Bell's real contribution may not have been the telephone, but the telephone patent, because he wrote such a good patent that nobody could challenge it.
02:45James Watson and the Double Helix.
02:48The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA transformed the fields of biology and medicine.
02:54James Watson was co-credited for this discovery and got his name etched into the annals of science.
03:00It's the famous light bulb going off story every school kid learns, how James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA and cemented their place in scientific history.
03:12History, meanwhile, has not been too kind to him.
03:15Watson's personal behavior overshadowed much of his scientific fame.
03:19He infamously suggested intelligence was linked to race and allegedly frequently made racist and sexist remarks.
03:27His dismissive treatment of Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray work was crucial to the discovery of the double helix, made matters worse.
03:35Do you think that it's at all clear that they would have gotten there absent her data?
03:40They absolutely would not.
03:41Despite being awarded the Nobel Prize, Watson was stripped of many honors in his late life as institutions distanced themselves from his views.
03:50The double helix was a beautiful discovery, but Watson's legacy remains ugly.
03:55Jack Parsons and Rocket Propulsion.
03:58Before NASA came along, there was Jack Parsons.
04:01Parsons was a rocketry trailblazer who laid the groundwork for modern space travel.
04:05From the time Jack Parsons was experimenting with rockets in his backyard as a kid, the idea that man could actually go into space was still a fantasy.
04:14His experiments with rocket propulsion helped what was once considered fringe science become serious research and the backbone of the modern jet propulsion laboratory.
04:23Parsons' science was on point, but his personal life was straight out of a pulp novel.
04:29Parsons was a bookworm and he enjoyed reading sci-fi instead of playing outside and making friends.
04:33He was so fascinated by stories of magic that he once tried to summon the devil in his own bedroom.
04:39He was deeply involved in occult practices that confounded his contemporaries.
04:44From Aleister Crowley's Thelema movement to notorious wild rituals, substance use and illegal activities, Parsons is remembered for his genius and his madness.
04:55While his rockets pointed toward the stars, Parsons himself lived in the shadows of the occult.
05:00Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, in a way, Parsons' sex magic spells actually worked because all of his intentions that he set out into the universe eventually came true.
05:10Fritz Haber and synthetic fertilizer.
05:12The discovery of synthetic fertilizer allowed industrial agriculture to flourish.
05:18Fritz Haber was the man who made this possible.
05:20He came up with the nitrogen fixation process, crucial for nitrogen-based fertilizers.
05:26Haber found a method which took the nitrogen in the air and bonded it to hydrogen.
05:30To form ammonia.
05:32Ammonia can then be injected into the soil, where it is quickly converted into nitrate.
05:37From feeding billions of people to arguably preventing global famine, Haber's invention saved many lives.
05:44But his legacy came at the cost of a horrific contradiction.
05:47Haber also trailblazed chemical weapons, such as chlorine gas used by Germany during World War I.
05:54On April 22, 1915, Haber personally oversaw the first large-scale gas attack in military history in Belgium.
06:02His weapons unleashed new horrors and changed the face of war.
06:06Haber's wife, also a chemist, tragically took her own life, supposedly in protest of his work.
06:12Haber's story demonstrates how one mind can both sustain life and invoke death.
06:18The year after receiving his Nobel Prize, Haber was charged with war crimes.
06:21William Shockley's transistor, a cornerstone of modern electronics.
06:25The transistor is the reason we have smartphones, computers, and most of today's digital world as we know it.
06:32These tiny transistors are destined to play a big part in our electronic age.
06:36William Shockley, a physicist, was part of the team that invented the transistor and would later win a Nobel Prize.
06:43While the transistor revolutionized technology, Shockley's apparent personal beliefs turned his reputation toxic.
06:51The breeding of good genetic material, whether the people are rich or poor, is desirable.
06:56We want more Lincolns, not fewer.
06:58Did I say this?
06:59Yeah.
06:59Shockley was a vocal supporter of eugenics, promoting racist theories about intelligence and genetics.
07:06His obsession with these ideas turned his colleagues away.
07:08This left behind a man with a tarnished legacy, and among the most disliked figures in the scientific community.
07:15I think we should go back and talk about the 80% geneticity, which is really the most definite thing.
07:20The control of genes by environment.
07:22Although Shockley's transistor was a monumental breakthrough in science, he has become infamously known for spreading pseudoscience.
07:30Guillermo Marconi's radio.
07:32If Bell's telephone connected localities, Guillermo Marconi's invention connected continents, transformed media, and paved the way for modern broadcasting as we know it.
07:42Sound is the first stirring of the infant.
07:52He hears sounds.
07:53He puts them together, and they cohere.
07:57Sounds have a romance.
08:00This was the man who laid the groundwork for modern radio, with his development of wireless telegraphy.
08:06Unlike his glorious invention, Marconi's reputation darkened through his political ties.
08:12He was an open supporter of Benito Mussolini, and aligned himself with Italy's fascist regime.
08:17Lending his name and prestige to authoritarian propaganda, Marconi became a unique reflection of how invention and ideology can intertwine in troubling ways.
08:26The radio remains one of history's great communication tools, while its inventor is rather remembered with a legacy compromised by politics and power.
08:35Mankind can never forget its debt to Guglielmo Marconi.
08:39Hans Geiger and the Geiger Counter.
08:41Radiation, in its advent, was considered an invisible but deadly and a mysterious force.
08:46Then came along an individual who found a means to quantify and detect it.
08:51His name was Hans Geiger, the inventor of the Geiger Counter.
08:54A mainstay of science ever since.
08:56The Geiger Counter became a pop culture mainstay as well.
09:00An essential device in 20th century science and medicine, the Geiger Counter is an indispensable tool for nuclear safety.
09:08Much like what the counter measures, its inventor's story carries disturbing undertones.
09:13Geiger was affiliated with the Nazi Party during World War II.
09:17He contributed to military projects that furthered the party's ambitions.
09:21Contrary to his invention that helped safeguard future generations, Geiger's own actions during one of history's darkest periods are a blemish on his legacy.
09:31Henry Ford's assembly line.
09:34Here is an individual who is credited with helping the middle class take off.
09:39He did this by making his cars affordable for everyday people.
09:43His investors want to make an expensive car to sell to wealthy people.
09:48Ford disagrees fundamentally.
09:50He wants to create a car for the people.
09:53The man's name was Henry Ford.
09:54He left an indelible mark on the manufacturing industry, coming up with the concept of an assembly line.
10:00His innovation turned the popular Model T into the car that put America on wheels.
10:05The Model T greatly expanded Americans' mobility, knitting America very close together at the same time that it opened American's sense of what was possible.
10:16But Ford himself was a man of troubling views and actions.
10:20Openly anti-Semitic, Ford published vile conspiracy theories in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.
10:27Suddenly, anti-Semitism was being dispersed by one of the wealthiest, best-known people in America.
10:38He also clashed with labor unions, using harsh tactics against workers.
10:43Although Ford shaped modern manufacturing and production practices, his personal bigotry, prejudice, and hostility towards workers stall his claim to moral greatness.
10:53Henry Ford has a complex legacy.
10:55He was a bigot, an oppressive employer, and by all accounts, a pretty terrible person.
11:00He was also the father of the American automobile, which revolutionized transportation forever.
11:21Thomas Edison and the light bulb
11:23The light bulb is often used as a symbol of human ingenuity.
11:26In contrast, its creator's darker side demonstrates its story isn't as bright as it seems.
11:32The inventive genius, whose fantastic mind had formulated the magic of the incandescent light bulb, was no great scholar with a long chain of impressive college degrees.
11:41Thomas Edison is remembered as one of history's greatest inventors.
11:44Today, there are major doubts about his credibility.
11:47Edison was notorious for stealing credit, particularly from Nikola Tesla, and reportedly used ruthless business tactics to crush rivals.
11:56He's got so much at stake that he's willing to do this smear campaign.
12:02During the War of the Currents, Edison staged brutal demonstrations of electrocution to discredit Tesla's alternating current.
12:09While he basked in fame, Edison also exploited his workers, and pushed them to exhaustion.
12:15The light bulb may have illuminated many a dark household in its advent, but its inventor leaves behind a legacy, proving how brilliance often burns in the dark.
12:24His current kills people.
12:27Only because you said it will.
12:28Ladies and gentlemen, which of these inventors do you think history should judge most harshly?
12:33Let us know in the comments!
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