LIFE AND DEATH RAY

Southland Times, Issue 22215, 6 January 1934, Page 10

LIFE AND DEATH RAY

WORSE THAN PLANES IN WAR.

A remarkable claim has been made by Professor O. A. Newell, head of the research department of the National Health League, concerning a new life-and-death ray. He says the ray would be a more powerful killing agency than aeroplanes, but could be used to foster health.

Professor Newell claims that disease rays can be transmitted by wireless sets, differing from ordinary instruments only in the method of amplification. Emulsions of abnormal bacteria, taken from patients suffering from various diseases, emitted rays so powerful that they swung the needle of a galvanometer 48 feet away. When directed against men’s bodies they changed the beneficent bacteria of the blood into malignant bacteria. Plague rays, says Professor Newell, can be damped out by an opposition set, as ordinary wireless messages can be “jammed.” Plague rays are capable of penetrating even airtight tanks. Professor Newell, however, directs attention to the life-giving aspects of these rays, and hopes they may be directed towards plague areas in order to destroy the malignancy of the bacteria. He believes also that rays could be used to assist agricultural production.

He added that the experiments included wireless transmission of plague from rats to 38 volunteers —doctors, scientists, Army and Air Force officers —all of whom showed immediate signs of illness. The experiments were initiated by the Queen’s cousin—Sir Augustus Fitzgeorge.