Do you ever wonder about people who just have a knack for thinking outside the box?

Inventor types.

It seems exciting and rewarding, right?

Like the guys who invented the light bulb, the automobile, the camera,

or the women who invented the windshield wiper, the dishwasher, and Wi-Fi.

But things don't always go as planned when you're experimenting.

I'm Patty Steele.

The line between genius and danger is thinner than you might think.

That's next on the backstory.

This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

The backstory is back.

Every invention begins with a spark, a moment when imagination lights up with the thought of possibility.

Now, the problem is the line between that spark and an explosive outcome can be way thinner than you expect.

There are some chilling stories of inventors who were so passionate about their creations

that they paid the ultimate price.

They're human stories filled with ambition, obsession, and the dedicated pursuit of progress,

but sometimes that pursuit pushed them right over the edge.

Sometimes an idea looks brilliant on paper, but it's a little wobbly in the lab or the workshop.

It's found to be fatally flawed, though, when gravity, pressure, or combustion gets involved.

Let's head to Paris. It's 1912. We're at the base of the

Eiffel Tower. At the center of a small crowd is Franz Reichelt, an Austrian tailor,

...