▲During the 1920s, Max Valier was a member of a German rocket society. During this time, he invented liquid-fueled rocket engines.

▲However, in 1930, Valier was killed when an alcohol-fueled engine exploded on his test bench in Berlin.

▲Mr. Midgley was a U.S. engineer who became one of many people who contracted polio in the 20th century. However, that wasn't what killed him.

▲

The Aerowagon was an experimental, high-speed railcar, intended to shuttle Soviet officials. On a test drive, the wagon derailed, killing six of the 22 passengers, including Abakovsky.

▲Valerian Abakovsky was a Russian inventor who passed away aged 25, due to his invention, the Aerowagon.

▲This British shipbuilder was the naval architect in charge of plans for the RMS Titanic, you know, that monolithic vessel that sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

▲A Confederate marine, Horace Lawson Hunley developed submarines during the American Civil War. One of his inventions, the H. L. Hunley, became a death trap.

▲Hunley assumed command during a test ride in 1863. The sub failed to resurface, and he and seven other crew members drowned to death.

▲Andrews was traveling on board the vessel on its maiden voyage, which notoriously ended in disaster. Over 1,500 other passengers died in the event.

▲

Midgley developed a network of ropes and pulleys to help him in bed. One day, he became entangled in the device, and strangled himself to death at the age of 55.

▲Curie is credited with co-discovering radioactive elements like radium and polonium. She eventually died due to exposure to radiation which emitted from her research.

▲The storm raged through the Eddystone Rocks, destroying the lighthouse and killing Winstanley, along with five other men.

▲Winstanley was a painter (that's his self-portrait above) and engineer. He built the first Eddystone lighthouse, which was targeted in the Great Storm of 1703.

▲The Polish pioneer of medicine reached many milestones in her life. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first to win two Nobel Prizes, thanks to research on radioactivity.

▲While installing a machine in Philadelphia, Bullock's foot was caught and crushed by the invention. His foot developed gangrene, and he later died during the operation.

▲The web rotary printing press helped revolutionize the modern world. It also took the life of its inventor, William Bullock.

▲The Romanian engineer named a self-built airplane after himself. However, the Vlaicu II didn't fare too well on a flight across the Carpathian Mountains.

▲Sadly, the plane did not finish the journey, and Vlaicu died in the crash in 1913. That said, the cause of the disaster remains a mystery.

▲This tailor lived until 1912, when he was notoriously killed by his own invention in Paris, France.

▲Reichelt invented the coat parachute, and wanted to test it out on the first deck of the Eiffel Tower. The invention failed on its first attempt, and Reichelt died on camera.

▲The French chemist and aviation pioneer invented the Rozière balloon in 1785. It crashed that same year, on a test ride across the English Channel.

▲Stanley died while driving a Stanley Steamer in 1918. The crash occurred when he tried to avoid farm wagons, and he swerved into a woodpile.

▲Fred Duesenberg was killed in 1932 in a fatal high-speed road accident, while driving a Duesenberg automobile.

▲Accounts claim that the balloon caught fire, deflating the balloon, which caused it to crash in Pas-de-Calais. Rozier died in the crash.

▲Along with his brother August, Fred Duesenberg found fame after founding the Duesenberg Motors Company, which produced luxury cars from 1913 to 1937.

▲Roper was an inventor of the Roper steam velocipede, a futuristic steam buggy which some say was the world's first motorcycle.

▲This fellow co-founded the Stanley Motor Carriage Company with his twin brother. They manufactured the Stanley Steamer, a high-powered steam car.

▲He died in 1896 aged 72, during a public steam trial. His steam-powered bike crashed, which caused Roper to have a heart attack. It's not 100% clear if the heart attack or crash caused the death.

▲

Henry Smolinski was the designer of the AVE Mizar, which is basically a flying car, launched in 1973.

The AVE Mizar was basically a Ford Pinto attached to an airplane. Smolinski manned the car during a test flight, which fatally ended in disaster.

▲

In the last few centuries, humanity has made huge strides in the world of innovation. We've made it to the moon, can cure types of cancer, and reinvented the wheel a few times too. Inventors make society go forward, but sometimes their creation can come back to kill them. Take Franz Reichelt, who killed himself after leaping from the Eiffel Tower wearing his self-designed parachute suit. There's a lesson to be learned for you young inventors out there: make sure your ideas are tested well, or you could end up flattened in Paris.

Click on to meet the brilliant inventors who were killed by things they invented.