9 Inventors Who Were Killed By Their Creations

According to Chinese legend, a 16th-century government official and all round lad decided that the time was right for a rocket chair to fly him all the way to the moon.

As the inventors of gunpowder, the Chinese had already had rockets nailed for the last 300 years, so roll around the Ming Dynasty and Wan Hu thought that he would attach 47 of them to a chair and light them.

You can probably see where this is going.

According to the legend, Wan Hu dressed in his finest (presumably to impress whoever lived on the moon), clambered into his chair and had 47 servants light the fuses and run for cover. Whereupon the chair promptly exploded (you know, because of all the explosives) and Wan Hu, his splendid robes, his chair et al were never seen again. Presumably the explosion reduced him to red mist, but maybe, just maybe, he was flung into orbit and landed on the moon after all.

What with this being a legend, it's accuracy and reliability is often called into question and most experts believe it to be largely aporcyphal. But, hey, there's no smoke without a fire (or 47 rockets).