TAKAPUNA MYSTERY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 162, 25 June 1935, Page 10

TAKAPUNA MYSTERY

MR. PENNY’S SECRET Invisible Electric Ray RADIO EXPERIMENTS The attack on M r Victor Penny at Takapuna last Wednesday night and the police protection accorded him and his home since have created great interest in other parts as well as in Auckland itself. An article in an Auckland exchange in which an attempt is made to give some explanation of the situation, is of interest. The article states:— The key to the whole position is the fact that Mr Penny'is not only, or even mainly, a garage attendant. For some years he has taken the most intense interest in radio and electricity. He has made several inventions, one or more of which he has submitted to the British War Office and the Admiralty. In his home his laboratory, or workroom contains a very large quantity of equipment, including, it is believed, completed or partly completed models of mechanical devices of his own invention. It is this equipment and plant which are being guarded. POLICE TAKE SERIOUS VIEW. While the police will give no information (and, indeed, only a very few are in a position to give it), it is known that they are taking a most serious view of last Wednesday ntgnt’-s assault on Mr Penny. It is believed that secret investigations had been made in Auckland prior to the assault on Mr Penny, by Sub-Inspector H. Scott, who is attached to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Wellington. Sub-Inspector Scott, like his senior officer, Inspector J. Cumming®, also of the Commissioner’s office, is a most experienced investigator, only entrusted with political and other inquiries of an important nature. It is understood that Sub-Inspector Scott returned to Wellington bn Wednesday night, but that, since the assault, he has returned. So much secrecy was preserved in connection with his visit to Auckland that many local police officers were unaware of his presence.

One report in circulation is that one of Mr Penny’s inventions is so revolutionary in its effect that it would be sought after by a foreign Power, and that the reason high police officials are making secret inquiries in Auckland is that the whole affair has an international significance. This may bo but a rumour, but those who have learned some of the facts are not inclined to discount it readily. The fact that the police are still guarding Mr Penny’s laboratory gives good ground for the belief that there is much more In the matter than has so far been disclosed. RADIO INVENTIONS. Colonel W. D. Holgate, chairman of directors of the Devonport Steam Ferry Company and its subsidiary company, the North Shore Transport Company, Penny’s employers, was able to throw some light on the matter. He said that lato last year Penny told him of his invention of a new type of condensermicrophone with a built-in pre-ampli-fier. He showed Colonel Holgate an agreement in connection w'ith the sale of this invention, and at the colonel's request he was referred to a friend, the principal of one of the leading firms of barristers and solicitors in Auckland. The barrister’s advice to Penny was that he should not dispose of the invention.

Colonel Holgate said that ho knew Penny had been experimenting with an invisible ray, of the nature of the “death ray” of which so much was recently heard in Europe. Penny's ray, he understood, could explode a box of matches 16 feet away from the apparatus he was experimenting with. He did not carry on with that experiment as he was unable to control the plant which he was using. “THEY HAVE GOT ME SET.” “On one occasion some months ago I asked Penny how he was getting on with hig invention,’’ continued Colonel Holgate. ' “He said to me, ‘Oh, they have got me “set.” ’ He did not make it clear to me whom he meant by ‘they.’ ” An incident which occurred last Saturday week, which may or may not have some significance in view of

last week’s affair, was then related by Colonel Holgate. Last Saturday week while he was out a man called and inquired of the maid fol Penny.

Acccording to Colonel Holgate, the man was most anxious to know where he could find Penny. On being told that he no longer occupied a flat ovei the garage in Wynyard street, the stranger askeu where Penny was living. He was given his address at Napier Avenue, Takapuna. “I am firmly convinced that last Wednesday's assault on Penny was definitely associated with one of Penny s inventions,” concluded C°lonel Holgate. The head of the legal firm whom Penny consulted said he was much impressed with Penny and his inventions “Six months ago he told me that quite by accident he exploded a box of matches with an invisible electric rny with which he was experimenting, lie could hardly believe his senses, and tried tho thing over and over again until ho exploded another box of matches. Penny also told me that the experiment was becoming too dangerous, as he could Jiot control the apparatus. He said it was only fear which made him discontinue the experiments, as the electrical equipment had a backward as well as a forward ‘kick’ in it. “I know he also experimented, anil successfully blew up cordite which war buried two feet in the ground.”

CLOSEST SECRECY

Mr Penny’s House Guarded By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 24. Mr Victor Penny, the radio experimenter, who was assaulted at Takapuna last Wednesday night, is still in the Auckland Hospital under guard, and his house also continues to bo guarded day and night. No official explanation is obtainable from the police, who are preserving the closest secrecy.