A DOMINION INVENTOR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1378, 2 March 1912, Page 6

A DOMINION INVENTOR.

THE AERIAL TORPEDO. Staying in Sydney at the present timo (says Uio Sydney "Sun") is Mr. Albau J. Roberts, an enthusiastic young inventor, who has already made tho scientiiic would think. He is the Edison of Australasia. Born in New Zealand, Mr. Roberts is but 30 years of age to-day. Yet ho has travelled tho whole of Europo and America and has astonished tho savants with tho far-roachiiigncss of his ideas and tho proofs that ho has produced. He goes so far, even, ns to say that before many years havo passed tho problem of overcoming tho theory of gravity will have been solved. He believes that it will be possible for auyono to drnp a heavier-than-air object and for that object not to fall to tho ground. He is striving to solve tho question now. In tho meantime he has performed new wonders with wireless telegraphy and tho aeroplane. Four or five years ago he went to England to bliow the Admiralty his 6chemo for the guiding of torpedoes by means of wireless. A great deal of money was spent and many experiments tried, and Mr. Roberts was within an aco of tho big fortune that would havo come to him had ho succeeded, when it was discovered that tho wireless waves from an opposition set of instruments could slightly interfero with his calculations. More than once ho had sent out a torpedo, had guided it to its destination, making it turn and dive absolutely at will. Ho had governed tho actions of a boat on the water in the same way, pushing it out on its journey without any manual aid, and bringing it back to its starting point. But at the last moment, when all the English experts and the representatives of'forcign countries had pretty well come to the conclusion that if Roberts's ideas were brought into actual practice in time of war, war would practically be no more, or would, at any rate, bo reduced to a seienco whereby ono man who knew would bo able to decimate an army of a million men who did not know, tho wireless waves from the antagonistic Bet of instruments forced their way in, and all tho experiments went for naught. But even now Mr. Roberts can send and guide a torpedo on half of its journey and can then release it from wireless control to let it finish its task unaidod. But the British Government wanted the whol© hog or none at nil, and Mr. Roborta turned his attention to other things. Ha had a hard struggle working on the stage of music-halls and demonstrating his idea in that way. But ho earned money, bought thousands of pounds' worth of apparatus, and set. out to go to the front again. Ho has succeeded. He has proved that it is possible to send an aeroplane, unattended by man, through tho air by means of wireless. He can stop tho airship where ho pleases, and when lie pleases, and can fit it with attachments so that it will, drop explosives or noxious gases on to any given spot at tho will of wireless. More than this, the current that directs tho airship cannot be interfered with by other wireless waves.

In fact, Mr. Roberts lias triumphed with an aerial torpedo where ho just failed with a water torpedo. He is on the verge of eucceßi with a pyroscopo that will make flying just as aafo a pastime as playing bridge. He is hopiDg, shortly, to demonstrate the valuo of gyroscopic action to the rifle bullet, and by means of that idea and another invention he hopes to make it possible for tho bullet to travel twice as fast with increased accuracy. He has had some advonturei. He took a hand in the Mashonaland rebellion, was in two big battles, and saw plenty of bloodshed. But the most exciting experience of his life happened during his last American tour, lie sailed out at night in a dirigible balloon from tho roof of one of the New York theatres, with tho idea of making a trip to Philadelphia. But a galo blew him to sea, and as thero seemed no hope of getting back, Mr. Roberts dropped into tho waves. He had to climb out of tho car of the balloon and trust himself to the mercy of the storm, with only an empty, air-tight gasoline tin as a lifebuoy. In the morning ho was discovered on the beach, unconscious, but still alive.