WHO HAS A DEATH-RAY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 181, 2 August 1941, Page 13

WHO HAS A DEATH-RAY?

In the past ten years 500 people have offered "death-rays" to Britain. Other countries, too, have had their share. What have become of these inventions, and claims? asks this writer in "Men Only."

By Noel Barber

1 large scale by radiating electrical energy. Unfortunately Nikola's in- ' ventfve genius had little further • opportunity to ripen in the gaol , where he was placed. I Fast-moving electrons, which are the most promising lethal rays, are hampered by a big difficulty. Air 1 acts as an insulator, and to use the > ray on the battlefield, a path for the I discharge would have to be set up. I An obvious path would be to convey the ray from the generator to the victim by using a jet of water », as a conducting medium. In theory - —ah! that theory!—it should be possible to squirt a death-ray of several thousand volts via water ; through nozzles. But the prospect : of carting gigantic machinery across ■ muddy battlefields has deterred even ; the most sanguine of our. defence chiefs. The last really exciting death-ray sensation hit the headlines in May, 1934. The central figure was youth- » ful-looking; already-established m- » ventor Harry Grindell-Matthews, » who, in -the last war was paid i £25,000 by the; British Government I for a system of controlling motor • boats by searchlight. Grindell-Matthews claimed that his , invisible ray was the most destructive force yet known to man, tnat J it was possible to spread it over a I zone of 50 miles from one machine J that it would make a barrage.round I London through which the highestflvine planes could not pass. 5 His preliminary results were so ; amazing (and, for a change, so authenticated) that Britain s Air Ministry, Admiralty and War Office 1 experts dashed to see official tests at the lonely Welsh mountain

QNCE upon a time (only four yean ago) Antonio Longoria, of Cleveland, Ohio, walked out with a few friends to a patch of open ground. Ahead of him walked other men, carrying cages, in which were mice and rats. Dogs trotted at their heels. The mice, the rats, the dogs were left •lone, and. hundreds of yards sway, Antonia Longoria pressed • twitch on a machine he had brought with him. Across the air travelled a ray. The mice, the rats, the dogs died. Antonia Longoria, of Cleveland, Ohio, went back to his home and pondered. Thinking things over, he decided that, though it was permissible to Mt animals by turning their blood to water, human beings deserved • better fate. So, having ajreadv made a fortune by his inventions, He *stroyed the plant and plans, vowing never to reveal his secret. a»P u * *!™ e3 have 'changed and there •Jfsee the very pertinent question: we could use Antonio Longoria, Wt where is he? And where, if it *«nes to that, are all the other mventors of death-rays. »0 "baton" In the past 10 years 500 people we offered "absolutely cast-iron'* wain-rays to Britain. Some were J? Wrlotic that they offered to kill denies for nothing; some wanted Maltry £20,000; others, perhaps* a Percentage based on people killed. Us.?* t * lere has always been at «™■ one snag. A ray that kills a mouse may not kill a man; and so JS , 'Patriotism in this sphere has «L? tended to th e point of human «f?j J* 0 man likes tne thought te-lSf*" 1 ln which his blood turns Salter* or his bones disintegrate, Z**«? no trace. And until some m «- ,s clever enough to trap J5 fJjWary assistant, we shall get three kinds of rays, all Sp.i ch .would be useful to us if ■SLr? inventors would step for--s?™ into the rays of publicity. m» »u£ e roagneto-stopping rays, Xh*™ a lethal action, and rays Armless except for deaircraft or exploding mines OW about these). <*fo™J? rst P v has been used, but over short distances. A few j£F? ago a number of French Sown /» Were x. mysteriously brought «*sr fi2££ the Ruhr Valley shortly a*dia«2i« al l s had occupied it. Imjjgfrwjy dozens of inventors SBeJSJn e . War Office with comt for similar rays which ~f t °P o aircraft flying at any"P to 30,000 ft from the ground. caimpH , re . modest inventors SJgw reeults at 1000 ft. The in one way, but when one realises GerSt nn * emus for chemistry—is fcuaVjSPgratus has yet been per*SU W SJ™ can stop magnetos or JSg* 8 at anything Tike 100 yards fj%"» * 1&98 tljecSlHjHS one incident. In 1898, SwSa Ele ctric Light ComAmerica found that its trfirrjj* e re burned out and elecattj Stratus inexplicably damaround, the G-men ° t TOta l Er nod discovered a young P«SSiH« Vent - or ' Nikola Tesla, exsix miles away on a

retreat where Grindell-Matthews, true to inventorial tradition, worked in solitude. But they would not pay enough, and Grindell-Matthews went to Paris to sell the ray there. No more was heard of it. Grindell-Matthews Demonstrates What was the difference between Grindell-Matthews' claims and the things he did? Before news-hawks (always susceptible to death-rays) he used only a minimum power to create a zone of 64ft in which he said that life would be impossible. Like Antonia Longoria. he killed mice. He also lit electric lamps, put magnetos out of action, exploded cartridges and gunpowder, lighted the wick of oil lamps. One of his assistants accidentally got into the danger zone, when only one fivehundredth part of the small power was being developed. It took him 24 hours to recover. Two years later modest little Professor R. H. Chadfield, of the Leicester College of Science, working in incredible disorder in a true-to-tradition attic workshop, said he had found a ray which he believed would kill human beings at a range of a mile. He, like Antonio Longoria and Grindell-Matthews, had killed a mouse. Nothing more was heard, of his invention. The oddest thing about most ray inventions is their versatility. You can understand inventors modestly claiming that'their rays will kill human beings at a distance of five miles. You can understand others who claim they can put engines out of order 10 miles away, /but you become lost in admiration for the genius of the inventor who can, with one ray, destroy life, set fire to anything inflammable, wreck aircraft, . explode - ammunition, stop motor cars, kill weeds, and at the same time cure disease and detect submarines. And still they come. Every one has of course, found the alchemist's stone which will save Britain from defeat against attack on land, on sea, and in the air: but none, so far. has had a real ray. Not even a ray of hope.