In 2024, petrol, which is now in any way related to lead, has been declared environmentally dangerous; whether it is color paints used in household paints and varnishes, all become harmful to health if they contain lead.

At the same time, chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons were introduced, and a revolution took place in the refrigeration industry. Thus, the need for ice floes that were transported from America to remote areas like India to keep things cold was no longer needed.

Lead: A Harmful Element

However, these chemicals were also considered to be responsible for destroying the ozone layer around the earth and were made obsolete in the late twentieth century. The credit for introducing these dangerous chemicals goes to an American citizen, Thomas Midgley, who was a resident of the city of Columbia, Ohio.

Thomas Midgley: A Chemical Engineer

Thomas Midgley graduated from Cornell University in 1911 with a degree in mechanical engineering, but he was particularly interested in chemistry. At that time, the periodic table was being developed rapidly, and he had become an expert in the chemical properties of various elements by their placement in the table.

He had the ability to see what advantages or disadvantages could arise if one element was replaced with another. Dayton, a city in the state of Ohio, was a center of scientific innovation at that time. The Wright Brothers had earned their first airplane from this city.

Every day, some new convenience was being made in motor car riding, new parts were being made, and work was being done on the ability to keep the fuel used in the car and the energy obtained from it at a minimum level and to eliminate the unpleasant sound of the engine. For this, the search for a suitable chemical compound anti-knock agent was underway.

Mudgale, using his knowledge of the periodic table, achieved great success in this direction in a project that began in 1918 and ended in 1923 with the discovery of tetraethyl lead; when leaded gasoline was introduced, not only was the unpleasant sound eliminated, but the fuel efficiency was significantly increased.

Science and Humans

Human needs inclined mankind towards tampering with the phenomena of nature, and various sciences such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, etc., flourished under the banner of science. Such herbs were identified in the plants, fruits, and flowers found in every hundred that were used as a means of treatment.

Organic compounds buried underground were made a source of energy, and if these natural compounds became scarce, then for the welfare of the growing human population, there was a search for their acquisition through unnatural factors.

Thus, the industrial revolution in Europe was marked by remarkable achievements in the field of agriculture, which ended hunger or reduced its intensity to such an extent that now the incidence of famine has also decreased, but in this war with nature, a long-term human tragedy was born.

Which we know and recognize today from the deterioration of the environment, and a new trend emerged that let this world remain green and lush. Industry and crafts should be such that they become a source of comfort not only for mankind but also for other living organisms, and the mercy of the present should not be allowed to become a burden in the future.

By promoting a balance, we should reject those factors of development that block the paths of life, neither acid rain nor ozone depletion caused by chlorofluorocarbons, nor greenhouse gases, nor rising temperatures, nor terrifying droughts, nor unusual rains that fill rivers to the point of raising sea levels and wiping out smiling settlements in the blink of an eye.