AIRCRAFT TRAP

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 12, 16 January 1933, Page 5

AIRCRAFT TRAP

A NEW SEARCHLIGHT

PROTECTIVE DEVICE

A radically new idea in searchlights, which, it is claimed, can trap hostile aircraft in a few minutes, has just beea demonstrated at Fort Totten, New; York, by its inventor, Colonel A. M« Jackson, commanding officer of tha 62nd United. States Coast Artillery. ' By means of a series of mirrors ip« frame in. front of the searchlight-ie* the nigh-intensity beam is broken i3s' into nine or more separate beams, thui greatly increasing the area lighted uZ To quote a recent Press bulletin: "Non* of these beams will interfere with on# another, yet the entire area is illumiii ated evenly. Strange as it may seen* previous attempts at training several searchlight beams at a target in thf sky have actually shielded the target* because searchlight beams are opaque! This cannot happen with this army oS fleer's invention which, it is claimed* can quickly locate enemy aircraft ana* due to its design and the large area covered, can prevent the escape of the' hostile aircraft regardless of the pilot's trickery or movements. Ay battery of these new-type searchlights placed at strategic positions could protect the entir» area of New York City or any other place. Experts claim that it v is the first major advancement in, anti-aircraft protection. This searchlight couia, of course, be used for an y. other type work as well as anti-air-craft." "A TEST." ; The "New York Sun,".in an account" of another demonstration within the city itself, says:' n ■ "Hundreds of thousands of Ne^ Yorkers saw a fan-shaped series of searchlight beams cast into the sky. from Bryant Park and disclose a squadron of army aeroplanes making a mock' attack on the city. "The occasion*was the first public? demonstration of an anti-aircraft de* vice recently invented by Colonel A, M. Jackson, commanding officer of th» 62nd Coast Artillery at Fort Totten;' ' /'lt consists of a series of twelve re* Sectors which break up the single higHi intensity beam of an ordinary: 800,000,000-candle-power. anti-aircraft searchlight into twelve separate beams,thus greatly increasing the area lighted UP- -.

"Pour of the huge searchlights werd used. Their beams were cast across' Bryant Park into the reflectors, which! sent 48 shafts of brilliant light two miles into the sky. By rotating the reflectors various patterns were obtained as the aeroplanes from Mitchell K'eld' came across the city and were revealei by the lights..