Thomas Midgley was a chemist and and all-time super-ghoul who came up with the idea of putting lead in gasoline. I misremembered some trivia about him. I thought he actually drank some leaded gas. I was close but no cigar.

On October 30, 1924, Midgley participated in a press conference to demonstrate the apparent safety of TEL [tetraethyllead], in which he poured TEL over his hands, placed a bottle of the chemical under his nose, and inhaled its vapor for sixty seconds, declaring that he could do this every day without succumbing to any problems.

However, the state of New Jersey ordered the Bayway plant to be closed a few days later, and Jersey Standard was forbidden to manufacture TEL again without state permission. Production was restarted in 1926 after intervention by the federal government. High-octane fuel, enabled by lead, was important to the military. Midgley later took a leave of absence from work after being diagnosed with lead poisoning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.#Leaded_gasoline