It turned out that the geologist determined the exact age of the earth by studying lead isotopes, and the laboratory used for lead isotope research was an ultra-clean laboratory, but Patterson could not get rid of the extremely high content of lead in the air. Where did this clue come from?
Patterson's measurement found that the lead content on the ocean surface is hundreds of times higher than that on the seabed, which indicates that the lead content has only recently increased. Especially in the estuaries of various rivers, the lead content in sediments and water samples suddenly increased, and the lead content in human blood was 625 times higher than before. All these lead anomalies point to leaded gasoline produced by oil giants at that time.
Dramatically, the facts disclosed in Patterson's paper directly hurt the interests of oil companies, and all the funds he used to study lead pollution came from American oil funds. In other words, it is to smash the boss's job with his money. Sure enough, a few days after the publication of the paper, the leaded gasoline company on the verge of an enemy country personally came to the door and threatened Patterson to stop all research on lead.
Later events proved that Patterson was not intimidated by the "boss" and personally exposed the crime of the "boss". At the same time, it also involves Thomas Midgley, a "scientific giant" who once invented leaded gasoline.
Speaking of Thomas Midgley, I have to say that he is a very powerful inventor, and his father is also an inventor. Mijili once produced 100 inventions in his life, including leaded gasoline and refrigerant freon, which made him famous all over the world.
19 16 years, young Mijili graduated from Cornell University majoring in mechanical engineering. As an engineer, he entered the Dayton Laboratory of General Motors.
At that time, Ford was the leader in the American automobile field, especially the star product T Ford, which had occupied half of the American automobile market. Facing Ford's huge market share, GM is struggling to find the breakthrough point of its own products, and at the same time, it has to pay attention to a fatal defect of its own products-knocking phenomenon.
What is "knocking phenomenon"?
Friends who are familiar with cars know that gasoline is dispersed into tiny droplets in the carburetor and then mixed with air to enter the cylinder. The temperature of the mixture rises rapidly under the sudden compression of the piston and is ignited by the spark plug, thus generating huge energy to continue to push the piston.
However, different components in gasoline have different ignition points, such as n-heptane, which is so easy to burn that spontaneous combustion occurs directly in the cylinder before reaching the ignition point, and the impact force generated is opposite to the trajectory of piston movement, causing engine vibration, and serious vibration will lead to engine damage.
So this question was handed over to Dayton Laboratories. The mainstream thinking of the laboratory is to find a breakthrough from the fuel. As a family of high flyers+inventors, Mijili took the initiative to shoulder this heavy responsibility. Mijili, who came from a purely mechanical background, spent several years studying chemistry. After numerous experiments, Mijili found that adding some heavy elements to gasoline can effectively control the knocking phenomenon.
192 1 year, Mijili quickly synthesized tetraethyl lead. After tetraethyl lead is added to gasoline, only 0. 1% is needed, which can greatly improve the knocking phenomenon. The key is that the cost of this compound is very low, and GM is very happy. 1923 set up a company specializing in the production of tetraethyl lead, m. He also founded "Tetraethyl Lead Company" with Standard Oil Company. Just the year before, Mijili was awarded the Knicks Medal by the American Chemical Society for inventing antiknock agent, which earned him both fame and fortune.
Only the "lead" in tetraethyl lead has a bad reputation. In order to confuse people, General Motors abbreviated it as "ethyl" and began to vigorously promote leaded gasoline.
It's just that the process of producing tetraethyl lead is not smooth. Five workers died of lead poisoning only two days after the establishment of the new company. When this happens, the media can fry the pot and question the safety of "ethyl" in succession. As the inventor of "ethyl" and the company's vice president, crisis public relations must be hands-on.
Mijili is also a "cruel person". He poured tetraethyl lead directly into his hand and sucked it for a minute, which proved to be harmless, but it was just a "top" in front of people. The toxicity of tetraethyl lead made Mijili slow down for a whole year, but it also made the public temporarily look away.
After a few years' rest, just after Mijili returned to the Jianghu, General Motors gave him a more challenging task. 1929 A refrigerator in Cleveland leaked refrigerant, which directly caused 100 deaths. General Motors hopes that Mijili will develop new non-toxic and safe refrigerants for household appliances.
Mijili is undeniably a real genius. After careful study of the periodic table of elements, it took only three days to find a brand-new safe refrigerant-Freon, which is the general name of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and Mijili discovered the member of CFCs, "dichlorodifluoromethane".
Freon is non-toxic, non-flammable and easy to liquefy, which quickly replaced the previous toxic or flammable refrigerants. In order to show that Freon is non-toxic, Mijili directly started the "performance", inhaling Freon directly in front of the camera and blowing out the candles in front of him, which is really a "perfect score".
For the harm of lead, the Roman Empire has fully demonstrated its horror. The lead intake in ancient Rome was very high;
On the one hand, the dignitaries in ancient Rome liked to use lead vessels to hold wine and make wine. The acetic acid in wine will react with lead to produce lead acetate, which is easily soluble in water and alcohol, resulting in a large amount of lead intake.
On the other hand, the technology of extracting sucrose did not appear at that time, and the only way to obtain sweet substances was through rare wild honey, while the daily sweetener in ancient Rome chose lead acetate, that is, the wine with strong sour taste and bad taste was boiled in a lead pot until it became thick, and the sour wine became a sweet "syrup", which was because of the sweetness of lead acetate.
Long-term chronic poisoning accelerated the demise of the ancient Roman Empire.
Lead is a neurotoxin, which has obvious damage to the central and peripheral nervous system. Lead will greatly affect the synthesis and secretion of acetylcholine, which is an essential neurotransmitter for normal intellectual development and plays an important role in learning and memory. At the same time, lead can also inhibit the synthesis of δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase, leading to a large number of δ-aminolevulinic acid aggregation. This substance has the function of pseudo-neurotransmitter, which further aggravates mental retardation.
The harm of lead to children mainly lies in its influence on the development of hippocampus. High concentration of blood lead can lead to thinning and shortening of moss-like fibers in hippocampal neurons, disorder of dendritic structure in cerebral cortex and synaptic degeneration. The function of hippocampus is closely related to normal learning and memory.
Fortunately, the discovery of geologist Patterson played a role. The United States began to ban leaded gasoline in 1993, and China completely stopped producing and selling leaded gasoline in 2000. In just a few years, the blood lead content of American children has decreased by 75%, and tetraethyl lead has been put into production for 70 years.
As for freon, Mijili was rated as "the individual organism that had the greatest impact on the atmosphere in the history of the earth".