MAD SCIENTISTS

THOMAS EDISON

He invented a lot of stuff…ok, we know, Tesla invented it…but anyway,

he did some famous things one of which included electrocuting an

elephant to prove that Tesla’s AC current was more dangerous than his.

Or so they say. While Edison was crazy and he hated sleep, he

actually had nothing to do with executing Topsy the elephant. And now

that we’ve gotten our myth dispelling fun fact out of the way,

on to the rest of our mad scientists.

ILYA IVANOVICH IVANOV

This Russian biologist was famous for creating animal hybrids. His

madness came to a peak when Stalin ordered him to create a race of

slave ape men who would serve communist Russia. He ended up

inseminating several monkeys with human semen although none of them

became pregnant. Or so they say.

SIDNEY GOTTLIEB

An American military psychiatrist with a Ph.D. in chemistry, Sidney had

some crazy ideas in his day. He was the man responsible for the idea to

fill Castro’s shoes with thallium to make his beard fall out.

ROBERT CHESEBROUGH

Not only did he invent Vaseline, he ate it every single day.

PAUL ERDÕS

This Hungarian mathematician was so devoted to his work that he

never married and lived out of a suitcase. At the end of his life

he had published about 1,500 papers.

ALEXANDER BOGDANOV

This Russian doctor was so obsessed with finding the secret of

eternal youth (typically through blood transfusions) that one day he

unknowingly injected himself with the blood of a student who was

suffering from malaria. Alexander died, but ironically enough,

the student survived.

HENRY WINSTANLEY

An English engineer famous for designing the first lighthouse of

Eddystone, he was so confident in his work that he decided to stay

in the lighthouse whenever there was a storm. In November of

1703 England witnessed just how misplaced his confidence was as

the lighthouse crashed to the ground during a storm with the

eccentric inventor inside.

FRANZ REICHELT

Known as the “flying taylor” this Frenchman was an early paratrooper

pioneer who dedicated himself to finding a way for soldiers to survive

falls from airplanes. After a few test flights with dummies being thrown

out of windows he decided to go all out and jumped off the Eiffel Tower

wearing his invention. Unfortunately the results were not life sustaining.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER

The architect famous for creating the geodesic dome only slept 2 hours

a night and wore three watches so he could keep track of time in

different time zones.