THE "F" RAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 22 November 1913, Page 18

THE "F" RAY.

When that entertaining literary i ' dreamer Mr. 11. li. We.!* wrote "The I War With the Worlds" he endowed the I Martians with a wonUivrful ray against. which neither fWh and blood nor any-! tj.:nfr made with hiuna-n hands could j stand. It shone on a thing and that] .thimr was not; liat'tleehjps melted before ii a? a leaden toy soldier melts in a kitchen lire, and "baMerioa of artillery; which came under ite inilluencc forth-i with ceased to raW exwpt an s.hapeU-s~ ■ musses of metal an.d charred woodwork. . Man h.is not yi.-t discovered the secret •■I Mr. Weill,' ray. hut if the .-la-inie oi . Sij:K>r Gitilio l.'livi can be subsUn-tiat.-d', I ho has produced « ray 'thai may reduce; the '. aiue of the finest iigh-tinß (*hip-»] atli-at to that of Scrap iron, and rend ■ war by land or sea on the i>rthixk>s line* of t<.. day i:r.pi;,-x=i'ile. ; >ienor llivi. who is an lta-ian, came . upon his wonderful .ray man.' it Ivs-s by , .i lidctLt. it seoms. A year a*co he bejra" ! e\;icrim(Mitir.g with the oiijivl of tr.ti.n-: I forming ordinary light into clivtricaJ J vibrations, and he invented a tspfoialj iitppaxattw inte.ndo-d to change electrical ' energy into light. The first result was! ; Uie tormation of very short electric | : oscillations. Then he discovered thai i thrive fi?K)rt provoked rosonjaneu on all the metal objects in hi*, ' li"i>om.tory. This induced him to a ban- 1 ;don the main object of hi* experHn.mtri.; and he net -nut to lind a. practical ap])li- ! ica.tiim for his : J*;oVfTy, I Sijrnor t'livi named these .short oecil- '< http>ns "X rayp." ile. succeeded in i causing I.he explosion of ordinary cart- ' I ridges, ev.cn when encased in paper, pro- ! vade-i they lia«l awl-il cap*. Then he projected the ray.-* on to a loaded revol-j ; ver place*! :!(X) feet away, and caused I ■ nil the C3irtri%] to explode. I I Last April the French (lovonrment i ■invited yij;nor I'Lhi to make experiments | ;at Havre, ami alrnrxst daily for two, monilirt he caused the explosion oi jru-n- j i powder <.'oretained in metal boxes, floating ' .or tiubmerijeil to ii dept'i of iZ Lf t. iit a ] i distance "t nearly eight milr*. i Owin™ to "the undue ioquisitiveness of j !ofTiciaV>, who were more interested in 1 the zrochine than th-- results of tie cxI perimeirtß, KigrwiT llivi decid-ed to go to '■ England, where he was introduced to 1 ; the Admiralty. Admiral Charlton pent I him to Portsmouth, where he -met Capi tain W. ('. 11. Xicholcion, comaaamliag I t-he Vernan. 'Che inventor has a<rrecd ': to bejrin experiments in KnjrlanJ in three j months' time, provided the Italian 1 0-overrunent refuses to purchase his injvention. Signor l.'livi is anxioos to give I preference to has native, larwl first, nnd ; then to England. j The irvenMr nays .hie machine ie light. J portable. «snall, and easily fixed in Uie j cabin of a ship or mounted on a motor I car. Its » is ennally possible on land ■ and sen. as F-r.ty.s can came explosions Jin the nragazinu of a battlesliip as well ,an in a fortress or even artillery on t'l-e i march. Frays, too. can be used against I dirigibles, provided they have a metal ;'frame work. . J Nut only can the rays be- u.-iod as weaj pons of offence, but. they have also in,idu>rt.riaJ a.n.l prarticsil pii cat-ions, such las the discovery of metal ore in mineral , ( districts, l'-nays penetrate the soil and .ewn -water, and their practical utility . ie most varied. I