WAR INVENTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24594, 30 April 1941, Page 8

WAR INVENTIONS

INADEQUATE TESTS ALLEGED NEW SYSTEM URGED :<Air Mail) , SYpjraY Apl 24 Charges that the testing, of valuable 'Australian war inventions is being held up because the Military Inventions Board is inadequate are to be investigated by the Minister for the Army, Mr P. C. Spender. '. There is only on# officer>4B v Sydney to.. interview who are engineering suggested that a staff of; scientific and engineering experts, similar* to* that in England, should be made available to assist inventors to make models of their inventions. .. : ' /Quicksands on Beaches Several months ago a. Sydney engineer submitted to military authorities a scheme to convert beaches into quicksands in case of ah invasion. Impressed with the possibilities of the scheme, the inventions officer told the engineer to make a working model of his invention so that it could be demonstrated to higher authorities. The engineer said he had no time to do this, and the invention has not been considered since hie. first proposed it. The one Officer has to interview cranks as well as and engineers whose'-'lpyeritions are worth while. Recently a man called on the inventions officer and said: “ I have a secret invention here which I must* let you have.” It took the man an hour to rig up the apparatus with detailed descriptions of the componert parts. Then he said: “ It’s a wonderful scheme for fowls to drink out of.” Many valuable Australian invention* have been submitted and tested. This week an invention for making the flame from heavy guns invisible at night was tested. It was so successful that it will probably, be adopted shortly. The flame from heavy guns makes an easy target for the enemy at night. Two-way Tanks Mr E. J. Barret, a marine engineer, of Liverpool, near Sydney, complained that military authorities seven months ago rejected his idea of two-way tanks, which are now being used by the Germans in Greece. A Sydney consulting engineer, Mr C. O. Harrison, said that scientists and engineers had lost’ their enthusiasm because they were convinced that defence authorities had no interest in» new ideas. .