A TERRIBLE ENGINE OF WAR.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

A TERRIBLE ENGINE OF WAR.

■ • Considerable excitement was caused in Paris by the announcement that \ M. Turpin, the well-known inventor of melinite, had sold another great discovery to a foreign Power. It will be remembered that M. Turpin was prosecuted for publishing an account of his inventions, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, lof which he served three. A Bona- ■ partist paper has published an interview with him, under the heading "The Secret of the Next Victorious Campaign " ; " A Formidable Engine of War Sold to the Triplice." M. Turpin claims to have invented a terrible engine of militaryjdestruction. He can employ in it new explosives and new projectiles, and says that the armies first enabled to use it will be able to lay down the law to Europe. According to the account of the interview, M. Turpin vainly endeavoured to get the ear of General Mercier, Minister of War. All his overtures were repelled, and, finally, he sent a telegram to a foreign Government which had already made | handsome offers to him. Twentyfour hours afterwards two high military authorities called on him, and he was received at the Embassy. The inventor is represented as having added that 15,000,000 of new arms, which he would gladly have reserved { to France, would soon be in the hands of her enemies. To the account of this alleged interview a note is added saying that millions of francs were paid by the foreign Government for the important secret. The affair was the subject of much comment among deputies of all shades of political opinion in the Chamber. Mojst of them were inclined to doubt the importance claimed for M. Turpin's invention, and the statement that he had disposed to a foreign Power was discredited. General Mercier has already agreed in principle to reply to the question of which M. Le Herisse has given notice, subject to a preliminary conference upon the subject with his colleagues in the new Cabinet. HOW THE MACHINE IS CONSTRUCTED. Paris, May 30.— The new inventions which M. Turpin, the inventor of melinite, is reported to have sold to Germany, are stated by the DixNeuvieme Siecle to consist of a mitrailleuse and a shell. The former, which is of strong construction, is provided with automatic means of transport, can be moved in any direction, and is capable of discharging at great rapidity 20,000 projectiles, covering a surface of 2,000 square metres. The loading is also automatic, and is effected by means of an electric motor. The second invention is stated to be an explosive shell emitting suffocating fumes. An experiment with the powder used for the shells is said to have recently been made at Brussels. Two hundred rabbits were shut in a room in which a small quantity of the powder was ignited, and they all died instantaneously. The Libre Parole says that two German generals, provided by the Emperor William with special powers, negotiated with M. Turpin on the 25 th instant, and that the Emperor has conferred upon the inventor the title of Chief Engineer for Armaments. A letter from Brussels to the journal, on the other hand, says that M. Turpin was for some time in negotiation with a Belgian manufacturing company, which was going to take out the necessary patents to bring out the invention. Everything was ready for settlement, when some ten days ago the German Minister at Brussels sent to Turpin to ask him if he would first see an agent of the German Government. Turpin consented to do so, and two days later two colonels of the Emperor's staff arrived in Brussels from Berlin provided with full powers. Conferences then took place between them and the inventor as to the price to be paid for the inventions, their value from the | military point of view, the manner in which the secrets of their manufacture should be given up, etc. The writer of the letter adds that although the affair was now on the point of being settled, he was certain that up to seven o'clock yesterday evening no definite arrangement had been arrived at. The same newspaper also publishes a letter addressed to the editor by M. Turpin himself on the 2nd instant, asking him if he could find a group of capitalists to bring out his discoveries. The newspapers generally agree that the matter is of sufficient importance to demand a full elucidation, as it is necessary to know whether a serious invention has been sold to a foreign Power, or whether the whole affair is simply an attempt to extort money. — Keuler.