A HORRIBLE PROSPECT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 7

A HORRIBLE PROSPECT.

SCIENCE UNLEASHED.

LODGE VERSUS GALSWORTHY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 7. Writing in the "Observer" Sir Oliver Lodge replies to Mr. John Galsworthy's appeal to scientific men not to press for•ward to further discovery, and the distinguished scientist and pyschic research woi-ker declares that to cry halt is now impracticable. Science, he says, has an instinctive urge towards discovery and invention in every way that is possible; and it is right to follow thi» instinct. The fault is not with the men of science or their discoveries. The fault again lies only in j the human will, which can, if it chooses, I utilise these and other methods for deleterious purposes and mutual extermination. Of wireless, Sir Oliver declares that it is difficult to see in what way this method of communication can be onij ployed in harmful ways, except, of course, that it can be used the dissemination of lies and for the encouragement of bad feeling. On the very morrow of Sir Oliver Lodge's pronouncement the "Star" (London) describes a new invention—an invisible ray to stop air raid on London —which bids fair to be so great an engine of destruction that one asks why go on living? It is of the type of "heat ray" already foretold by H. G. Wells, and is the discovery of Mr. Grindell-Matthews. It is known that inventors in Germany and several other countries have been directing their attention to inventing a ray which will stop the engines of flying aeroplanes. Mr. Grindell-Matthews has solved the problem so far as this country is concerned. With such small generation of power as can be obtained in a flat he can create a zone of over 64 feet in which nothing can live, in which everything that can be burned o.r melted will be reduced to ashes or a molten mass. The invention is an invisible ray, and it will probably be found to be the greatest engine of destruction that the ■world has even known.

"The ray," Mr. Matthews said, "is a sort of path through which we transmit power. That power is like nothing so much as lightning.

"Lightning, when it has no clear path, zig-zags about the heavens till it strikes something, such as a lightning conductor, which gives it a clear path to earth. "The power we generate—a form of electricity—uses the ray as a path just as lightning uses a lightning conductor.

Results to Date. "At present we have not been able to test it fully, because we have not been able to build a sufficiently strong generating station. But our experiments lead us to believe that the of destruction will be limited solely by the amount of the power which -we generate.

"Working on the formulae we have already obtained (and which our calculations and experiments show to be constant), we estimate that the plant to maintain a 50-mile barrage round London could be constructed for an initial cost of £3,000,000. Air raids would be a thing of the past, because no hostile aeroplane could, enter the protected area.

"Already we have achieved some remarkable results. At a distance of 64ft we have killed a mouse instantaneously, shrivelled up plants, exploded gunpowder and cartridges, set fire to all sorts of things, lighted electric lamps, lighted the wick of oil lamps, put out of commission the magnetos of aeroplanes and motor cars.

"We believe that we could explode ammunition dumps even at big distances, and we know that we could kill men.

Fatal to Air Raiders. "One of our assistants accidentally got into the ray once. We had only i just developed about a five-hundredth of even the small power we can dc- j velop, but the man was laid out imrae- , dialely, and it was 24 hours before he had recovered. "On another occasion a man, for barely a second, got a weak ray on his I face. Next morning his face had completely skinned. ' "A Zeppelin could not live for five seconds against the power of the ray. Its magnetos would be put out of commission, and the envelope burned instantaneously. "The apparatus for generating sufficient power to do this could be carried on a battle plane or on a motor lorry." Big Scale Testa. Within the next few weeks it is hoped facilities will be granted to put , the invention to the test on a large I scale. One of the things then to bo i tested will be whether or not a shell fired from a gun can be exploded in the course of its trajectory. One of the advantages of this power j is that a given area could be com- I pletely covered by it. Not every square i inch of an area, either on the ground or : in the air, can be covered by shell or ! lead, and even poison gas I:e3 in pockets, j But this ray and the power transmitted , through it would sweep every square i inch of a desired space. A Controllable Power. The power can be controlled. A man can be either killed outright, incapacitated for a few hours, or even for a day or two. It can be directed to a given sauare inch, or made to cover an area miles large. It can be generated at. a central station and distributed to certain subdistributing stations, and in another trench war might thus be directed from the trenches themselves. Whether there are any commercial uses to which this ray and power can lie put is a difficult cflicstion. "One suggests itself immediately," raid "The Star's" informant. "It might be of inestimable use in Africa and all places where they suffcrpd from locusts. With this ray \ro cnuld sweep the heavens clear in <"n r-'tiutea, bringing the pests down to earth a mass of scorched dead bodies."