The Segway Human Transporter came to market in 2002 as the invention of Dean Kamen, an entrepreneur from New Hampshire who made his fortune after he created the first insulin pump for treatment of diabetes. At the time, Mr. Kamen said that the Segway would have an impact on society similar to that of the personal computer.

Although it is a sadly ironic yet rapidly growing myth that Heselden himself invented the Segway vehicle that led to his ultimate demise the Segway was actually invented by American physicist Dean Kamen in 2001, and his company was purchased just this year by Heselden the rumor did get the Surge Desk thinking about inventors who met their demise by their own creations. Here are five examples. See even more at Wikipedia’s excellent list.

The unique Segway transporter relies on electricity to recharge its batteries and travels at speeds up to 12.5 mph (20 kph), the company says on its website. It is more protective of the environment than other scooters and automobiles, the company says, claiming it is 11 times more efficient than the average American car and also can be used indoors because it has no emissions.

The Bloom Box fuel cell system is a much better, or at least more reliable, alternative to solar power as a green energy source.a Bloom Box for the residential market could be out in 5 to 10 years for under $3,000. That’s a big improvement from the $800,000 box of today, but only time will tell if Sridhar is being overly optimistic. And in the coming years, big name competitors will probably catch up to Bloom with cost efficient boxes of their own.

Bloom Box reportedly proved twice as efficient as traditional power sources and produced 60% fewer emissions.According to the Guardian, Sridhar’s work draws on his research on generating oxygen for Nasa’s missions to Mars. Oxygen is drawn into one side of the cell, while a fuel, such as a natural gas or bio-fuel, is drawn into the other side. The two combine within the cell and produce a chemical reaction that creates energy without any burning or combustion.

They have just been too expensive to be viable until now, and Bloom still has to prove that its box can produce energy at a cheaper rate than other power sources. The box also produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct a potential downside depending on how much it generates.