INVENTOR’S SAD END.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 288, 9 November 1925, Page 10

INVENTOR’S SAD END.

“AN EXPERIMENT.” ,

SYDNEY, Oct. 28. Robert Otto Waiter was an aged German inventor, lie chose an extraordinary method of ending his life—inhaling chloroform through a lamp wick. At the Royal North Shore Hospital ho said his act was an experiment. W'alter was 63 and single, as far as the police know. He had lived in New Zealand from 1890 until about 18 months ago. Amelia Jordan told the City Coroner to-day that "Walter lived at her house in Paddington. He was an inventor of waterproof materials and a substance for renovating celluloid collars, and used chloroform in their manufacture. She believed he was in financial difficulties, and owed her six months’ rent. On October 15 W 7 alter was found in the bush outside the Zoo, lying on his, back with a leg of a pair ot underpants pulled over his head and face, and a lamp wick in his mouth leading from a flask of choloform. Walter was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital, where he died on October 17 tli. The coroner returned a verdict of suicide.