AMAZING CLAIM

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 192, 15 August 1941, Page 8

AMAZING CLAIM

Powerful Explosive Reported

From America

HOT AIR, SAYS SCIENTIST

Rec. 2 p.m. NEW YORK, Aug. 14.

An element which, if it was contained in a 101b bomb, would blast a hole 25 miles in diameter and more than a mile deep and would wreck every structure within 100 miles, is being developed by an American, said the president of the National Association of Science Writers at the annual conference.

The United States Government has taken over control of the scientists working on the application of the element, and also control of the discovery. Its development for war purposes is being investigated.

"I think it is going to be the concentrated effects of 'hot air' that is going to blast this hole," was the amused comment of a member of the science faculty at Auckland University College, when the cabled claim was referred to him.

"In other words, you do not think it is possible?" he was asked.

"Frankly, no," he said. "You will notice that it is a statement made at a conference of science writers— not necessarily scientists. I think it is probably a suggestion arising from experiments being made in the creation of atomic energy by the disintegration of atoms. But experimentally, there have been no indications of its use for the purpose suggested. These experiments are based on the views of Professor Fermi, an Italian scientist, who has been working in America on the disintegration of uranium."