THE NEW WAR MACHINE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9096, 23 May 1908, Page 3

THE NEW WAR MACHINE.

Some time ago reference was made in our cable messages to the invention of a new war machine capable of projecting shell 3 hundreds of miles, thus making it possible to bombard Paris from London, or vice-versa. This formidable weapon is the invention of the well-known Scottish metallurgist., Mr W. S. Simpson, the force used being electricity. One of Mr Simpson's acutesfc critics (says the London Daily Chronicle) is Mr W. T. Stead, who, in an interview with our representative, raised some interesting points. One was as to whether a shot had been actually propelled from the new weapon. That, of course, will be done at the trial for which arrangements are being made. Speaking generally, on the assumption that Mr Simpson's invention is all that is claimed for it, Mr Stead said: "I regard liim as a most efficient co-worker in the cause of peace. In the course of the conversation, Mr Stead referred to Lord Lyttons strange story, "The Coming Race. In that book the author attributed the final disappearance of war from the planet to tho disrovery of a powar he called "Vril," a destructive a;> deadly that an army could be an nihil a ted by the touch of a button by tin finger of a child. "What Lord Lytton wrote," said Mr Stead, "was, I oalieve, quite true in a sense. I nnoo had a long talk with Mrne. Blavatsky—many people did not beJiave in her, but that is another matter —and she asserted that the "Vril* of Lytton was absolutely true. It was simply, she mantained, a disintegrated atom, which, i>eing disintegrated, sufficient force was liberated to destroy anything." TUrning from this fascinating speculation, Mr Stead said that if Mr Simpson could establish his claim no one would be more delighted than himself. But it must be proved beyo'id the possibility of doubt that Irs weapon, or the projectiles from his weapon, would go through the strongest armour ever put on a ship. At the same time, Mr Stead insisted that the staggering fact was the assertion that this new weapon could shell Paris from London, or vica••ei'3a. "We ought to be told olainI ," he said, '.'whether t lis is purely a matter of laboratory experiment or mathematical calculation as to what ought to happen. If it were not that Colonel Maude has acted as sponsor for this weapon, the general at:itude of the public would, I t'.iink, be one of scepticism. "If," ha said, "the idea of bombarding places so far apart as London and Prais becomes practicable then the whole of our Dreadnoughts and great imnanse ironclads become scrap-iron at once —a consummation devoutly to be wished in many respects —indeed, I only wish that Mr Simpson would hurry up with that gun." One other point Mr Stead made. "If," he said, "Mr Simpson has got this enormous power, would it not be capable of use for something else besides throwing projectiles into an enemy's city at a distance of 300 milaa? Could it not, for instance, be mod for working a turbine engine?" /