A NEW WAR TERROR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 80, 2 April 1908, Page 3

A NEW WAR TERROR.

ITTE MILES A SECOND. The cable received yesterday announcing that Mr, Simpson, a Scotsman, has invented a weapon ior imparting by means of electricity an initial velocity o! 30,000 feet (54 miles) per second, to projectiles up to 20001b in weight, enabling London to bombard Paris, was received in Auckland' with more or less incredulity. It would appear, however, that the invention is quite within the bounds of possibility. A "Star"' representative waited upon Professor F. D. Brown, professor pnysics at the Auckland University, to-day, with reference to the cable. The professor has recently returned from a twelve months' visit to England, and was asked if he had heard anything of the new invention while at Home. "No," was the reply, "I heard nothing of the matter, but that is not extra ordinary, for an inventor working on these lines v/ould naiurally keep his ideas to himself." "Is it possible that such an initial velocity could be imparted to a projectile by electrical means?" was nest asked. '"It is quite possible," tvas the reply, "'provided that you have sufficient power and a sufficiently long coil. If you have a coil of wire through which an electric current passes a projectile may readily be shot through it. An ounce of example is worth a ton of precept. Come with mc, and I will show you what I mean." Professor Brown then led the way to the laboratory of the University. A coil of insulated wire a foot long surrounding a hollow cove, and looking like an exaggerated cotton reel was taken, and into the tube a knitting needle was passed. Then through the cove an electric current was passed, contact being made and broken at the same instant. The moment that the current was applied the needle shot through the coil and was impelled a distance of three or four feet. This is an old and well-known principle. Each successive strand of the coil draws forward the iron or steel shaft, the velocity of which increases with the distance travelled through the coil until it is cast forth with a velocity dependent upon the strength of the current and the length of the coil. Of course, if the current be continued the projectile will be drawn back as rapidly as it was propelled, but the instantaneous making and breaking of the current shoots it clear of the coil, as already described. "Xow." continued the professor, "if you have an enormous coil and a very powerful dynamo there is practically no limit to the speed which you may impart to the projectile, provided that you overcome the mechanical difliculty of producing and breaking the current with sufficient rapidity. This is the only principle that I know of which would have the suggested effect. You see what a small coil and a weak current can do; imagine what it would be if you had a coil a hundred yards long, and a current in proportion developed by adequate machinery. Nothing whatever stands in trie way, and I do not know that there is any reason why three thousand feet a second or even a greater velocity should not be attained. Of course, you understand that I do not know anything about this invention, and can only give what appears to mc to be a feasible explanation. But the principle which I 3iave enunciated is quite sufficient to account for the cable; perhaps no one has previously thought of adapting it to this purpose. Of course, the cost of carrying this system into effect would be enormous."' ""Is it possible that the Herzian waves used in wireless telegraphy could be adopted for the purpose?" "No, I do not see how that could be done. I think it must be worked upon the coil principle."