THE STOKES GUN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3088, 19 May 1917, Page 7

THE STOKES GUN

AND THE MAN WHO MADE IT,

of recent fighting on the British front have referred to the deadly work .of our Stokes gnu. A "sinister weapon our special correspondent has called it. : It. sends up into the air, like a group of lead pencils, a flight of bombs which sail down on to their objective with deadly accuracy and a terrific explosive effect," was his description of its' action. The "Times" correspondent has written of the '•.coruscations' of a hail 'of Stokes bombs . . . niost aweinspiring both-in appearance and effect.'" At the front the gun has been regarded ■For many months'iwithr increasing enthii.a'sm. Officers arid men have said.-that it is by far the most effective short-range weapon -we possess. . A wounded .soldier wrote home:-"Tell Dad-to let Mr. Stokes know that I saw the way his' gun. blew the Hun to blazes.. The Germans can't stict'it'at any price. All you could hoar wajt.- 'Bring up'the Stokes Kuns and get ' them in action.' The boys thought I was mad, for'every, time a Stokes shell burst, 1-kept shouting, ,'Anpth.er one from Ockham.' " ; "•".'. ''

Mr. Wilfred Stoles, the inventor of the gun, lives at Ockhain, near Ripley, Surrey. He has said that had it" not been for Mr.-Lloyd George's foresight his invention might'hare gone on the scrapheap. Mr. Stores is chairman and managing director of Messrs. Jtansomes and Rapier, Ltd., engineers, 32 Victoria Street, S.W. 1, and' Waterside Ironworks, Ipswich, with which firm ho has been oiated 6ince ISB6. He is also chairman of the East Anglian Munitions Committee.and a'member, of, the Munitions Invention .Department. Ho !was formerly with. the.Greaf Western and 'Hull-, and' Barasley Railways! Asked how he came to invent the gun, Mr. Stokes,. a man' . of big build with' a kind yet strong face, -Mid, "A friend of mine came back from Prance .and .told'me lie was convinced •that, this war was. a battle of wits and that the side which, could produce the.most effective . death-dealing machines would win. I am a peaceful man, and had never wished to invent a gun that would so-ranch as lift an eyebrow, but this idea just came to me after what my friend had 6aid. A good deal of experimenting, chiefly on my own ground at Ockham, ended in the production.of the present gun, the chief characteristics of which are simplicity, lightness, and quickness in firing." ... •