WOMAN SCIENTIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 104, 1 May 1920, Page 20

WOMAN SCIENTIST.

How .1 woman's invention helped our; iloops to overcome German poison gas; ,va.s told hv the inventor herself ai a demonstration before the Association ofj science Teachers in the Physics Theatre of University College on January .">. Mrs. Ayrton ivi~ demonstrator. She took her audience step by step through the various .tages of her discovery, and with a "service iVin" showed bow the gas actually was driven oil. She showed how the fan wa« used ill clearing a dugout- of ga-. and remarked that many deatiis took place lxvause dug-outs were not cleared. Sue next narrated her dirlicuWies in getting the War OUice to net. il being over a year before the authorities accepted her invention. '*! offered it to them in May, 1015. My assistant was out in France in tlie following .May showing how the men could be trained to use tbe fans. They were not made in anything like the quantities they ought to have been. Tiie fans saved some lives, but thousands more could have been saved. I had great difficulty in getting the War Office to believe that any training was necessary in the use of tlio fun. They neve:- realised it was a scientific instrument, whie'i would require knowledge before it could be used properly. They were constrained to supply the fans because there was such a demand for them, 'but tbey did not have men properly trained to use tliem, up to the very end. That the fan was accepted a.t all seems to have been due to the sympathetic insight of Dr. Addison, at the Ministry of Munitions. Mrs. Ayrton's son-in-law telegrupheel to "Mr. I__oyd j George thus: ''Lady physicist has invented a fan to overcome gas attacks: vol? must see it," to which the Prime .Minister replied offering to make an appointment with| her. Airs. Ayrton answered that she bad no wish to talk: bcr object was to demonstrate the usefulness of her invention*. So she toolt it to London with her. bin it "wa* just sniffed at by a gentleman at the .Ministry of Munitions." As she could not see the Prime Minister she carried her invention to Br. Addison, who was much impressed by it, and after witnessing a trial said "I will ge_ you into .ommunication with the right person." The outcome was that it was thoroughly tested by t>he School of (Military Engineering, which reported favourably to the War Office, with a recommendation that 5,000 should be ordered. It will be remembered that Mrs. Ayrton (now a widow) had a most distinguished scientific career, and is the only lady member of the Institute of Electrical 'Engineers. In 1906 tlio Royal Society awarded 'her the Hughes medal for her investigations on tho electric arc 'and on the 'phenemena of sand ripples. Mr. Israel Zangwill is her son-in-law.