BRITAIN'S SECRET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRITAIN'S SECRET

NEW DEATH BAY ANTI-AIRCRAFT DEFENCE SCREEN PARALYSES ENGINES In five years from now Britain will be protected from the highest and fastest flying bombers by an invisible, but inescapable, barrier of rays . This statement was made to me by a high official of the Air Ministry—a man who has watched the development of the so-called death ray from the earliest experiments, states a special correspondent of the Sunday Express, London. .\t tests made recently under conditions of great secrecy, the ray completely paralysed the engine of a bomber flying at a height of several thousand feet. The pilot had no choice but to glide to earth in a forced landing.

The subject of the ray is regarded with great importance in the Air Ministry. For it is obvious that with increased power and more elaborate apparatus this ray must be employed as Britain's front-line aerial defence. Many Difficulties '"lf the experiments continue as successfully as up to the present it will be possible to form an invisible barrier around Britain which will totally incapacitate bombers living at 20,000 or 30.000 feet," I was told. Two or more scientists, working privately in selected laboratories, are the men who are giving to Britain the secrets of a ray with greater powers of penetration than either radio or X-rays. The principle of the beam was discovered some years ago, but its application to aerial defence was beset with difficulties.

It has been obvious to intelligent observers that the excessive screening of the magnetic systems of our own machines is much greater than is required for preventing interference with radio receivers and transmitters. The German Government has been experimenting with this death ray, and the screening of British magnetic systems was calculated to be sufficient protection against the ray which they were known to be operating. Scientists have lon<r maintained that screening with aluminium or copper is sufficient to protect the electrical equipment of any aeroplane. Destroys Life

But no means have yet been found to defend machines against this new British ray. Morever, even if a machine's magnetos can be protected, two other possibilities present themselves. These new rays destroy life in a few minutes. And they are capable of exploding the more sensitive explosives of the fulminate of mercury type. If a machine itself is invulnerable to the rays, the pilot himself may succumb or he and his machine may be blown to pieces by his own bombs detonated by rays he cannot see.

Further experiments in which the pilot less type of aeroplane is likely to be employed are to be carried out to test the effectiveness of higher-powered rays.

The new tests will employ electrical power similar to that available in the event of war, when a vast supply of surplus electrical energy is available dnrinc a "black-out."

Diverted to the apparatus designed to send out the death ray. this electrical power will provide a screen through which, the scientists are confident, no aerial invader can pass.