10 More Inventors Who Hated Their Own Creations
3. General John T. Thompson - The Thompson Submachine Gun
Back in the 1940s, it seemed every gangster used a Tommy Gun... at least, they do in the movies. The Thompson Submachine Gun was intended for use primarily by the United States Army during World War I, but it found its way onto the open market as these things tend to do.
The weapon was first created by General John T. Thompson in 1918 and is best known for the circular drum magazine used to hold up to 100 rounds of .45 caliber cartridges. When Prohibition kicked off, gangsters quickly picked them up and used them in all manner of horrible massacres, which is one of the reasons Thompson came to despise his weapon.
Ideally, Thompson wanted his weapon to function as a one-man machine gun capable of turning the tides of trench warfare during WWI. At the time, machine guns required a crew of 2-3 men to operate and they were incredibly heavy. His weapon was the answer to that problem, but when gangsters started using them on civilians, General Thompson wasn't pleased.
Within short order, General Thompson's name was attributed to the weapon as "Tommy" or the "Tommy Gun" but most people simply referred to it as the "Chopper" or the "Annihilator" and that wasn't the legacy Thompson was hoping to leave upon the world.