SECRET RAY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4873, 21 July 1936, Page 3

SECRET RAY

INVENTOR KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS.

Strange things happened tO' Frank Manning, aged 17, an electrical engineer, of Wellingborough, Northants, as he worked at home on a television set which he built on what he believes to be an entirely new principle, says the Daily Express. As he switched on the apparatus and knelt down by the set he was knocked flat. He managed to switch off, and then lost consciousness. That was six weeks ago. Last Wednesday he fell unconscious in the street. He was taken to Northampton Hospital. When he recovered two policemen had to hold him down.

Now he lies in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and his mysterious malady is baffling specialists. He is there as an “inspection” case.

Frank Manning believes he has discovered a new combination of rays. That is his secret.

Lying in his hospital bed, Frank Manning told a Daily Express reporter the story of his television experiments. “I think I have succeeded in building a television receiving and transmitting set on an entirely new principle,” he said; “Instead of an expensive cathode

ray tube, I use two little pieces of carbon, half an inch in diameter by three inches long. Inside the carbon there is, of course, something else — there-’s my secret. “Those bits of carbon- work in the set for 50 hours, and only cost two pence each. At present they are locked away in a safe. I believe I have discovered a fortune in them. “In my experiments I use sound, ultra-violet and ultra-red frequencies. One day I believe I got in between the three. I was kneeling down. The television apparatus was switched on. Then I was knocked flat. My head seemed to spin round. As I fell I reached for the main switch and managed to turn it off. I lost consciousness.”