AERIAL TORPEDO

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19397, 7 August 1937, Page 15

AERIAL TORPEDO

MINEFIELDS DISTRIBUTED TIME-BOMBS ON ROCKETS LONDON, July 25. A remarkable story ol a device to lay “aerial minefields” to counter raiding aircraft is described in the Sunday Chronicle, winch says it has been examined and praised by aeronautical experts. It is stated that the inventor, Mr. Harry Grindell-Matthews, has designed an aerial torpedo which will reach a height of :!2,000 feet within a few seconds. At this height the rocket will discharge upwards of 20 parachutes, to which lime-bombs are attached by high tensile quality steel wires. The parent rocket is provided with its own parachute, which blows out at the end, thus enabling the rocket to be retrieved and recharged. Large numbers of these rockets would be discharged in a short time, releasing colonies of 20 to .'SO smaller rockets and so creating an aerial minefield over a wide area. The cost ol the rockets would be a few hundred pounds each. The Sunday Chronicle describes the inventor’s experimental station as situated on a lonely Welsh plateau surrounded by an electrified fence and barbed wire fences. In the workshops, if adds, the rockets will be manufactured soon.

Mr. Grindell-Matthews, who was born in 1880, has devoted many years to scientific research, especially in the sphere of air defence. In 1011 he succeeded in establishing wireless communication with an aeroplane in Might. His inventions include an automatic pilot for aeroplanes, control of boats by searchlight beams, and submarine detectors, lie has been engaged on defence against aircraft and submarines since 1030.