INVISIBLE MEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22922, 28 December 1937, Page 15

INVISIBLE MEN

MAGICIAN'S INVENTION INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS INTEREST OF WAR OFFICE [from orn own correspondent] * LONDON, Dec. 6 . An invention which was produced too late to be of use in the Great War, but which may prove valuable should another war take place, is a form of camouflage which is claimed to render troops invisible. The inventor is Mr. Horace Goldin, th® magician, who has experimented with the idea for many years and is now negotiating with the British War Office, which is investigating its possibilities. In his book "It's Fun To Be Fooled" Mr. Goldin explains how the notion came to him. When war was declared he found himself almost isolated on one of the islands of Hawaii He had important engagements in America but forms of transport had been commandeered by the military and naval authorities. He was informed that the only way he could hope to be taken to America was to become of use to the military authorities. "The idea for the invisible camouflage came into my head practically complete at three o'clock in the morning," he writes. "I jumped out of bed and jotted it down. The next day 1 busied myself with the apparatus needed for this marvellous camouflage which would render men invisible and after two days' work I had it completed and working to my satisfaction." Mr. Goldin showed his invention to an official and demonstrated how, by the use of this camouflage, he could make toy soldiers invisible. The official informed the United States army representative, and the invention was again demonstrated in th« bedroom of his hotel. Mr. Goldin said to the brigadier-generaJ who was watching it: "If you had a column of soldiers, with their heads showing above the trenches, I could make them invisible to their enemy. Twenty men could march into the enemy general headquarters and capture the officers and never be seen."

He explained that there was a definite limit to the size of the object to be camouflaged. Arrangements were made by the military authorities for Mr. Goldin to be given a privileged passage on board a ship sailing to San Francisco, where it was arranged that he should call on the American War Department at Washington in November, 1918.