9 Inventors Who Were Killed By Their Creations

Heading back to Ancient Greece now, Perillos of Athens was the proud inventor of the torture and execution device known as the Brazen Bull. Inventors of such devices should always be careful to ensure that they don't end up hoisted on their own petard, or bull as it were. 

The Brazen Bull was a hollow bull statue made entirely out of bronze. Prisoners were locked inside the bull and roasted to a grisly death. Perillos was even thoughtful enough to add a feature that made their screams of pain sound like the roars of the bull emanating from its bronze mouth.

It was this last little detail that would be the downfall of Perillos. Upon explaining his ingenious design to the tyrant lord Phalaris, his lord was so disgusted by the macabre device that he ordered Perillos to be the first victim to be roasted in the bull.

Some accounts say that Perillos met his end in the belly of the bull, some say he was dragged from it just before the end and chucked off a cliff. Either way, it was the bull that did it.