A £lBO,OOO EXPERIMENT

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2338, 3 February 1913, Page 2

A £IBO,OOO EXPERIMENT

The W r ar Office and Admiralty, of course, spend enormous sums of money in experiments. Some few years ago, it may be remember d that experiments were conducted at the Woolwtcb Arsenal with a newtype of gun whuh was to be an immense improvement en the Maxim. 1 A Government paper stated subseeiuently that the experiments had cost, £BO,OOO, but what the results of these were i.ever came to light,; presumably they were a failure, as the gun was not adopted as a weapon ol war. Eighty thousand pounds, of course, is a mere drop in the ocean -where experimeiits of such vital importance are being coneiuctcd, for if successful the results may be worth millions to us. For example, it cost the Admiralty £IBO,OOO in experiments before the type of engines with which the ships of the Dreadnought class are fitted was fina'ly arrived at. The design of these engines is kept a profo - n1 secret, but there is no doubt th.it tbey are the most powerful type ol ma T '-'ne engine in existencs. The money spent on the experiments which resulted in arriving a' this type e>f cngme was well invested. FLYING-MACHINES. A good deal of money, without very much result so fa v , has been spent < n experiments with riying-machines and airships. The War Office spent £7OOO on the construction of one aeroplane alon", which the public knows nothing ol beyonl the fact that the first time it was flown the young officer who flew it was killed. Between the experiments made by the War Office and Admiralty with flying-madiines some £200,000 has been spent in the past two years.— "' Weekly Telegraph."