WEAPONS OF WARFARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21076, 9 January 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

WEAPONS OF WARFARE.

THREE NEW TERRORS. POWERFUL GAS SCREEN. SHELL WEIGHING THREE TONS. Three great new inventions, which will probably revolutionise modern warfare and means of. locomotion,, are at present being brought to the practicable stage in the peaceful little village of Gummarsbach, Germany. Each of the inventions is dependent on the rocket principle. The invention which is nearest completion will make possible the most effective form of defence against enemy airplanes. The " defence rocket," as it is called; is able to rise to a certain height, and there release a supply of a secret heavy gas which spreads and forms a dense curtdin. No airplanes can pass through this curtain without its engine exploding. Hostile ail-planes will consequently be forced to descend on meeting this gas. As future wars will probably be fought largely in the air the defence rocket is of the utmost importance, particularly t.o Germany, which, under the Treaty of Versailles, may only prepare itself for defence. The other terrible weapon of warfare is a rocket .device: which, it is asserted, makes it possible to shoot an. explosive shell i weighing three tons a distance of 300 miles. < _ It is the third invention which is the most interesting, because it is the most useful. The present maximum speed for air travel is about 440 miles an hour.

The greatest height to which anybody has risen in the atmosphere is that reached recently by.Professor Picard in a balloon. « Both these records will be broken by the rocket-Zeppelin. ,It . will have to take off from, water, and will achieve a phenomenal speed. The inventor him■self admits that it will be a long time before experiments prove- the rocketZeppelin to be a safe form of transport. In the other two cases, however, experiments have been carried put with great success in the presence of experts. The inventor's name is Wiihelin Belz, who began life as - !v-- watchmaker's apprentice. It was later, as • a mechanic, that he gained a knowledge .of engines. After that he became a skilled air pilot. Belz was an intimate, friend of Max Valier. the famous builder of the rocket racing car. After Valier's death Belz carried on his work. The inventions are regarded as of paramount importance, although the German Government has not, so far as is known, shown any practical interest in them.