GREAT AIR BULLET

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 10

GREAT AIR BULLET

INVENTOR'S STORY. A development of the Pomaroy explosive bullet which did so much to spread terror among Gotha and Zeppelin crews is now being used in destroying the mines scattered round the coast. Four of those mines were blown up or sunk by the bullet off Spithead a few days ago. Tho evolution of this bullet is one of the romancai of tho war. It was used for the- first time in warfare on September 3, 1916, -when, after the Germans had made 37 airship raids on this country, Captain W. I„. Robinson, V.C., destroyed over Cuflloy, near Enfield, the first Zeppelin ever brought down en English soil. The Germans knew at an early stage about the bullet, but they did not discover the secret of iis construction. Mr ,lohn Pomeroy, a toll, clean-shaven, round-fuced New Zoalandor, of jovial smile, told a ' Daily Mail' representative how he came to invent the bullet, and of his two ( years' struggle to got it adopted. TURNED DOWN IN 1914. "I thought, it. out 18 years ago, inspired by a picture which I saw in New Zealand of tho first Zeppelin that fell in Germany," he said. " I camo to tho conclusion that an airship of this type would be tho most important, factor in a big war unless it could bo fought bv setting alight tho hydrogen. Mv bullet was tried in 190S by Lieutenant (now Commander) Dinweddie, of H.3ES. Encounter, then in New Zealand waters. It, did ail that we ,-wked of it. I was in London when the -war broke <:ut, and on Au2u.sc 27, 1914, I submitted the invention to the War Office as an anti-Zeppelin bullet. It was turned down promptly, and, feeling disappointed, I packed up and went to Australia. News <.>r Zeppelin raids soon reached there,' ami I revolved to rot urn and make another effort to induce tho Government to use tho bullets. 1 travelled by of America, and on a Sunday morning at Fort Ben Harrison save a demonstration of tho bullet, whi"h resulted in Lieutenant Copeck, of the United States army, recommending its adoption by tho United States Chiet_ of Ordnance. On the following morning, however, mv -wife and I travelled to New York and caught a boat for England. I knew I had a good thing, and wanted the bullet to be used against the Zeppelins. Colonel ('now General) Ashmore tried it tit Fort Grange, Gosport, in Juno, 1915. _ It destroyed all tho aeroplane wings against which'it was directed, and Colonel Ashmore proceeded at once Lo tho War Office to report tho remit. Another trial was so satisfactory that Colonel Ashmore asked me if I would be willing not to leave England if the Government decided to adopt tho invention. I attended the War Office the next-morning. Another successful trial took 1 place at Upavon, and I was informed: ' You'll hear from us in due course.' j DILLY-DALLY. "After a three-weeks' wait another trial was"suggested. I was not invited to it, and as I considered it unfair to ask me to supply mv ammunition and be absent from the trial, I "did not accede to tho request. I heard no more for four months. In November, 1915, I wrote to the Invent ions Board, and was 'informed aftor a month that the Munitions Invention Department was considering my application. On January 6. 1916—-over 16 months after I had first submitted the invention—l wrote to Mr Lloyd George, and it was the Prime Minister who aotually r-ecured tho acceptance of tho invention. By this time, hnwevor, my funds wero running low. I haft had no financial help from the Government, and had been spending monev all the while on trials. A financier in Piccadilly agreed to finance tho undertaking on tho condition that ho received half of° any payment that might be made to me for the invention. Tho Munitions Invention Department suggested that as an engineer, I should apply at tho Labor Exchange for a job at a munition factory; but I wanted to push my bullet. Towards tho end of the summer of 1916 I got an order from tho Government, and ray wife made tho first 5.000 bullets in a. room at tho top of Ad-dßtra! House, on the Embankment, which wiis lent to us for the purpose. I was awarded £20,000 for the invention (half of which went to my financier) and £5.000 for my persona! services. Since that 10.000,000 of tho bullets have been made."