KILLING MEN BY MYRIADS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 224, 21 September 1893, Page 5

KILLING MEN BY MYRIADS.

A Frenchman Who Proposes to Wipe I Odt Whole Abmibs. M. Tukpin, the inventor of melinite, is naturally very reticent on the subject of the new engine of destruction which he planned. Ha has assured the- correspondent: that it was nob his intention to give any information about the formidable weapon to the public, as his secret is reserved for the Government. Ho did not, however, deny that some of whab had already leaked out as to the nature and capabilities of the weapon was true. According to these statements 11. Turpin goea so far as to say that the figures already given as to four discharges in a quarter of an hour, each belching 25,000 projectiles, only represent a minimum. He "believes that his gun could, in fact, be brought to such a pitch of perfection as to enable those using it to sweep several army corps off a field of battle as by a gust of wind.

As to the principle on which the terrible weapon works, M. Turpin says it has an electric basis and is of the utmost simplicity. His secret, as he emphatically reiterates when spoken to aboub the matter, will only be divulged to his own Government, and under certain conditions. These are thab a Committee of officers Bhould be appointed to try the experiments with him on a aeoluded headland on the Finisterre coast, with a cordon of troops around to keep back the inquisitive. As to taking out a patent ho means to do nothing of the sort, as his secret might thua bo communicated to a German, Englishman, Italian, or, as the inventor expresses it, an Armstrong quelconquo. 813 melinite is now used in every country from Germany to Japan, and he doe 3 not want his gun to become in tho same way the common property of nations.