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Real-Life "Mad" Scientists

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were noble men who were merely ahead of their time, hardly deserving of the ignominious title of "mad scientist" or inventor.

There are, on the other hand, some scientists who have earned that branding with unqualified success.

Here are 9 of them, courtesy of cracked.com

 

 

 

Nicolai Tesla - widely regarded as the pioneer of all things electromagnetic.....the electrical transformer, the Tesla Coil, inventor of the alternating current, which now powers virtually every house on the planet. His experiments were wildly ahead of his time, frightening to all but himself and possibly his closest associates, and even invented a "death ray", a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon of the 1920s. Yet, it was not these traits that branded him a crackpot, but rather his personal life.


A combination of poor business decisions, economic trouble, and pressures from archrival Thomas Edison eventually led to the end of his good fortunes, and he acquired obsessive/compulsive tendencies and other eccentricities. At one point the US government seized all his documents under exaggerated charges relating to his citizenship, and didn't give them back for years. He ultimately died alone in a hotel room after failing to sell his giant death ray to the US government.

 

History can be humorous when viewed in hindsight. Some of our greatest scientists and inventors simply viewed the world through different lenses, but were considered crackpots- some had to endure years of derision and disrespect until they were ultimately recognized to be geniuses. One can hardly blame the masses for having doubts, considering the outlandish claims and eccentric behaviour:


Tycho Brahe - Cloaked in rumours and hearsay, Brahe was merely eccentric, but is widely tagged with the lable "mad scientist". Abandoned by his parents, kidnapped by an uncle, given to drink and ill-advised duels—Danish astronomer and alchemist Tycho Brahe's life could have made any scientist go mad. At one point he lost his nose in a sword duel and had a prosthetic made of gold in its place. But, as biographer William Kirby reveals, Brahe took all his "crazy" and channeled it into some of history's most astronomical achievements. Maybe that's because Brahe always had a best friend to lean on in times of trouble—his trusty pet moose. And Jepp, his clairvoyant dwarf. And a jester.
"Rocketman" Goddard - When Robert H. Goddard, a New England physics professor and a pioneer in rocket science, was first testing the use of rockets with a liquid propellant in 1926, the New York Times ridiculed him, saying the inventor lacked "the knowledge ladled out daily in our high schools." Forty-nine years later, as Apollo 11 headed towards the moon, the Times printed an apology: "It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum. The Times regrets the error."