Science: Diabolical Rays

Harry Grindell Matthews (TIME, June 2) plunged deeper into an orgy of mysterious dickering with prospective purchasers of his invisible “death ray.” Refusing an offer of £1,000 from the British Air Ministry for a two-weeks option, provided he would test his machine on a government motor instead of on a motorcycle engine in his own laboratory, Matthews melodramatically seized an airplane and hopped off for Paris just as process servers reached the field to serve a writ of injunction on him from Edgar Grubbins, A. H. Daley, and J. S. P. Sanborne, English capitalists who claim to hold the majority rights in Matthews’ invention. According to Grubbins, Matthews was penniless when he met him, and the entire expenses of the experiments were paid by the business men.

In Paris, Mathews secluded himself and consulted attorneys, but wild | rumors were afloat—that Royer, the Lyons electrical magnate, was acting for the French Government; that British representatives followed Matthews to renew their offers and prevent the escape of the “ray” from England; that Ambassador Herrick had invited Matthews to lunch at the American Embassy, and that U. S. naval attaches were investigating unofficially. The Navy Department denied any offer. The British Under Secretary for the Air Ministry, interpellated in the House of Commons, said Matthews had not demonstrated his claims to their satisfaction, and that the phenomenon of stopping a gasoline engine in the laboratory could be duplicated by any expert. Matthews’ situation apparently boils down to this: that he is jockeying for a position of advantage in dealing with his own Government, but hasn’t produced enough results to justify any large investment. The scientific world is unanimous in condemning Matthews’ publicity before thorough tests. New names of great scientists who laughed at Matthews’ story included Edouard Branly, French physicist, who said that no concentration of known rays could produce the force claimed, and that scientists do not anticipate the discovery of new rays that can. Dr. John H. Morecroft, of Columbia University, says that no scheme for using rays destructively has yet advanced beyond that of Archimedes, who burned the Roman galleys in the seige of Syracuse by sun mirrors in the third Century B. C. Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, of the College of the City of New York, says that there are but five types of rays dangerous to life: X-rays, radium rays, ultraviolet rays, ordinary heat rays, and high-frequency or radio electrical fields, in the order of length. Between the ultraviolet and the heat rays is the visible spectrum of light rays. X-rays are harmless beyond a few hundred feet at most. There is not enough radium in the world to secure large-scale results. Ultraviolet rays have the peculiar property of making the air through which they pass a conductor for electrical currents. They can be directed, and it is possible that a method will be devised for sending high-frequency “lightning” such as was produced in the Pittsfield laboratories by Faccioli (TIME, June 18, 1923) over an ultraviolet track. Such a combination would indeed be a fatal ray. Meanwhile, a prolific list of competing “rays” cropped up. Dr. T. F. Wall, of Sheffield University, England, applied for patents on a “means of transmitting electrical energy in any direction without the use of intermediate transmission wires,” in which the British authorities are also said to be interested. Two other Englishmen, Prior and Raffe, have similar devices. Grammachikov, a Russian, has invented a ray that is favorably considered in the Soviet war offices. The German Government is reported to have a ray machine that last year brought down 13 French planes in Bavaria (hushed up but later admitted by the French). John H. Hamill, British engineer, said to represent the German scientist who invented this last-named device, is in America, trying to sell the method to the U. S. Air Service. The rays operate by disabling the magneto of an engine. The first step toward this process was discovered by Nikola Tesla, 30 years ago, and most of the current schemes are based on his principle. He built huge electric coils which scattered rays and short-circuited nearby electric apparatus. Inventors are trying to “step up” the Tesla coil for long-distance work.