SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21243, 14 October 1940, Page 10

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

INVESTIGATION OF IDEAS MAY PROVE OF VALUE STATEMENT BY ADVISER {United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Oct. 10 British citizens, from peers and Cabinet Ministers to working men, are sending every week to the Scientific Research Directorate of the Ministry of Supply more than 400 inventions and suggestions toward winning the war. While many of the suggestions are impossible in practice, and some are fantastic, others, according to Professor E. N. Andrade, scientific adviser to the directorate, ' are adopted, and may prove of in- I dustrial value after the war. Proposals from which positive re- * suits have been obtained relate to I searchlights, anti-aircraft gunnery j by prediction, reinforced concrete, the • welding of armour-plate and comforts I for troops. j Professor Andrade said work was j still proceeding on various lines in j the hope of finding effective means j of defeating the night bomber. There ' could be no general cure, but it | might be possible to produce devices | through which enemy casualties j would be so heavy that it would not i be worth his while to continue this j form of terrorism. Particular at- j tention was being paid to improving | methods of location and obtaining j greater accuracy from aviti-aircraft j shelling. Rather Wild Ideas “Nothing has come in of a revolutionary nature,** said Professor An- I drade, “but we are glad to get these ideas and investigate them. The I threatened invasion brought a big i crop of rather wild ideas. They included a bayonet attachment to soldiers’ boots for kicking purposes! nets to be stretched, presumably in the air, against parachutists, with pockets into which they would drop, causing a bell to ring: the dropping of snakes, scorpions and wild animals over Germany, as well as hungry ! rats; jumping tanks: and finally. a compound which could be fired into the air to solidify into a kind of gelatine substance which would set round enemy troop concentrations like a shell. “We welcome suggestions from the public and wish to do nothing to discourage them. We are only too happy if we are rewarded by finding from time to time something which can be utilised for the war effort.’*