A MARVELLOUS INVENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7507, 15 September 1902, Page 2

A MARVELLOUS INVENTION.

• TO REVOLUTIONI MODERN _ WARFARE. . ' ■ ■ :■• - ■'■.«■"■• "If you can perfect this little instrument you will revolutionise warfare. Nay, more ; you will help to put an end to war altogether." This was the remark which a. famous general made to Mr W. Youlten twelve months ago, after examining the model of an appliance to be fixed to rifles and guns invented by the latter. Air Youlten claims that he has now perfected the instrument, which he calls the "hyposcope." Briefly, by means of the hyposcope, a soldier is rendered invisible, while to him the enemy remains clearly in view. Mr Youlten' asserts that if our forces in the late war had been; provided with the hyposcope the Boers would have expended their shot and shell on vacant air.. Thousands of brave men now lying under the veldt wouldhave been restored to their families. The war would have been concluded long ago, and scores of millions of pounds saved to the British taxpayer. This is a great deal to claim for a little instrument made out of two brass tubes and four mirrors, and cost- " ing no more than a sovereign, . but Mr Youlten's opinion i® shared by some of the greatest military authorities in England. The War Office has taken up the matter/ seriously. Earl Roberts has experimented with the instrument, Viscount Kitchener has watched the results achieved by it, the National Rifle Association offered a special prize at Bisley for the ibest shooting with it, and all the representatives of foreign armies ir% London are waiting almost with bated breath to learn if the War Office has "decided' to add this wonderful little appliance to Tommy's fighting kit. Such an important step may be. taken almost immediately, in which event every British soldier will be seen wearing at his waistbelt a leathern pouch not unlike, a. pistol case. It will contain his hyposcope— the instrument which wijl make of him an invisible fighting man. - • '.' The hyposcope may be attached to either rifles or guns. ,It is a telescope-like arrangement which in five seconds can be fitted to the breach. Transferring lenses show the entrenched soldier the exact position of the enemy, while all the latter can see, even with, the aid of powerful glasses, is the rim of his rifle muzzle. "If the twenty million rifles of Europe were fitted with uhe hyposcope," «aid Mr r Youlten, "the probability is that the hkeli-' hood of a great European war would dis-. appear for ever. Two opposing armies entrenched would «cc nothing to aim at. It would be a game of 'blind man s buff, :i£ l may use the expression. All they could do would be to pound away at the trenches with their artillery, or, as a great soldier said to me, 'the guns of one army Wd have to blow away the side of a hill before they could see anything to kill.' " The trials witt the hyposcope at Bisley have proved highly successful at the time of writing. Five bulls in succession have been gained by one marksman, while the score of another was 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 2. _ "It was after Colenso," said Mr Youlten, " that the idea occurred to me. I Kit depressed at the number of men we had lost, and marvelled at the fact that our troops, could not see a Boer to shoot at. I immediately began to.pondentbe question whether it would not be possible to render entrenched men invisible.- Then I thought of a toy which, when a schoolboy, enabled me to look- over walls without myself being seen. Here was the germ of the invention. I at once got a workman to make me such a toy from my own design. It was back the same afternoon. The following day a member of the Ordnance Committee of the War Office happened 1 to visit me. I explained the thing to him, together with certain modifications and improvements I intended to introduce. The officer took the instrument away with him. When .1 returned from lunoheon there was a telegram awaiting me. It was from the War Office ordering a thousand of the instruments. The invention at that time was .intended only for observation purposes. Since then I have developed it considerably. General Woodgate would not have lost his life had he had one of these instruments. In the great fight with De la Rey in April the entrenched Canadians held their post until every man was killed or wounded. I venture to say that the hyposcope would have saved every one of these precious lives. I could give you a hundred such cases. In one battle a distinguished officer whose name I am not at liberty to mention had forty men shot one after the other as they went to serve a Maxim. 'To tell a man. to serve that gun was like sentencing him to death,' said the officer.' If," protested Mr Youlten, " that Maxim had been furnished with a hyposcope, not only the men, but the gun itself, would have been invisible, except the barrel." j Mr Youlten's invention has been praised by some of the greatest soldiers in England. One authority declares that " the, hyposcope will render every one of our men worth two." The money value of a soldier to the War Office is fixed at £300. On this basis, provided with a hyposcope, he would be worth £600. Should a great war break out many eminent authorities agree that not a soldier could be safely spared from England or from India. That is the reason why the War Office urges every Englishman to become an efficient shot. But it may be that the Jiyposcope will solve this problem of Home -defence. At any rate, the implement is now on its trial, and a few weeks, or even days, will decide whether something like a revolution is to occur in the methods of European warfare.

The average English canal carries 8800 I tons a year per male. The Suez Oanal car- | lies 60,000 in the some .period,