MYSTERY BUNGALOW

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1935, Page 4

MYSTERY BUNGALOW

INVENTOR'S WORKSHOP

MANY FANTASTIC PLANS

On a mountain-top in South Wales a lonely English inventor is working to conquer the air, water, and death, writes Colonel T. P. Etherton in the "Sunday Express," London. Once the inventor was known as "Death-ray Matthews." Before that he was Harry Grindell-Matthews, from whom the British Government bought a motorboat controlled by light, with guns that were fired by searchlight beam.

Now, in the midst of thirty-one square miles of territory leased from the Duke of Beaufort, he is living in a bungalow* and laboratory, guarded by barbed-wire fences and secret-ray burglar alarms. He found his retreat by flying over the mountains. He has his owri aerodrome large enough to receive bombing aeroplanes.

I have heard his own story of how he hopes to conquer death—in the skies, under the sea, and in the human body.

Grindell-Matthews does not receive visitors. Because I am counted among his friends, I am the first to be allowed past his steel door and wire fences, and to be made to feel at home in his hidden retreat. DETECTING SUBMARINES. He is a tall, fine-looking man of middle age, widely travelled. "My work turns me into a hermit," he said, "but I have plenty of shocks and currents to keep me going. Electricity will prove to be one of the greatest safeguards and preservers of life that the world has ever known." Some of his work is nearing completion.. Here are his objects:—To perfect a device for detecting the presence of submarines thirty miles away; to discover a ray to kill disease germs; to set up a new aerial defence for London, or any other city, by rockets and steel-wire aprons which will hang in the sky; to devise rocket aeroplanes to travel at the incredible speed of six miles a second, with which man might be able to reach the moon.

They are objects so fantastic as to rival the imaginings of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. But when you hear this quiet, confident scientist talk about them you have to remember that in his bungalow he already has machinery

that will transmit rays strong enough to kill a rat 60ft away or stop a motorcar. I have had a life of thrilling adventure, but I have never spent a more astounding weekend than on my recent visit to the lonely scientist. "It will be possible in, time," he told me, "to arrange an electric charge with lightning speed to arrest aeroplanes in mid-flight, to stop motors and internal combustion engines in their tracks. This ray will naturally cost a great deal to operate over long distances." I DEFENCE AGAINST AEItfAL ATTACK. An aeroplane caught by his "policeman" ray would not be destroyed, but, with its engine useless, would be forced to land. Grindell-Matthews is hard at work on defences against aerial attack. This is his plan: Rockets will soar thousands of feet high, explode, and pour out steel "rain" attached to floats. The steel, thin as silk thread, will crash attacking machines.

If warning were received of a raid on London, for instance, rockets would be shot to a height of 30,000 ft in 4J seconds. The wire curtain, giving complete safety, would surround London, and citizens would be able to sleep without fear of attack. Compare that with the time it takes an aeroplane to

rise with cumbersome aerial aprons of limited range. So far has GrindellMatthews progressed that there is a probability that he will give, a demonstration in the summer. Foreign Governments, as well as the British Govern^ ment, are eager for news of his"''work. ROCKET AEROPLANES: Next comes the rocket aeroplane, driven by gas derived from liquid hydrogen, capable of terrific propulsion. Six miles a second may be the speed of an aeroplane carrying its own fuel if Grindell-Matthews succeeds. That would reach the moon, 239,000 miles away, in less than twelve hours. Germany, France, and Britain are all interested in this amazing plan. Some time ago Grindell-Matthews demonstrated to the French Government his latest method of submarine detection. He told me he had perfected a detector able to operate at thirty miles. Grindell-Matthews is a genius who is quietly harnessing the air in the service of humanity. He is probing the secrets of electricity and the hidden rays; he is "taking the lid off the future." After work his favourite pastime is the study of plant life. He loves the countryside. What new wonders will he reveal? I left him feeling there is no limit. . ,