MANY INVENTIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 4 December 1940, Page 2

MANY INVENTIONS

winning The war TASK FOR SCIENTISTS j FANTASTIC IDEAS SUBMITTED j LONDON. Ist November. | About 400 ideas and inventions are submitted to the Government every week. Some are good, but many are fantastic. A scientist who, with his colleagues, has to examine the ideas sent in. said:— “Of the 400 about four are worth while. And those four repay all the careful examination we give to the rest. Some of our best ideas have come from ordinary chaps with little or no scientific training. “Lots of the ideas we have got from working men are official secrets, but many will be important contributions to peace-time industry. They include, for instance, methods for automatically sealing petrol tanks, a new wood-join-ing device, and means of automatically adjusting brake-shoes. “Then there are ingenious boobytraps, anti-tank devices and bright ideas for camouflage. From technicians we have had important contributions to anti-aircraft predictors and to the fuses for anti-aircraft shells. “But there is a big proportion of crazy ideas. One suggestion was that iwe should invent a gaseous substance I which, when it came in contact with a falling body, would turn to gelatine——so that parachute troops should come : down wrapped up like chickens-in-aspic. “Some people want us to drop wild animals, including hungry rats, from aeroplanes. Another idea is to spread nets to catch parachute troops. They would fall into a pocket and ring a bell. “We get death-rays by the score. One fellow claimed he could make metal vanish. He arrived with his backer—that type usually comes with a backer, like a prize-fighter—and a gaggle of old lamps, pieces of a wireless set, and ultra-violet light. All he produced was a short-circuit.”