TERRIBLE ENGINE OF WAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1919, Page 4

TERRIBLE ENGINE OF WAR.

A NEW ROCKET. WORCESTER (Mass), March 31. Dr. Robert H. Goddard, professor of physics at Clark College, has invented a new rocket tiiab is reported to be a terrible engine of war, with an altitude range of seventy miles straight up into the air and a distance range of at least 200 miles.

The rocket, in the opinion of the scientists who have investigated its workings is the most efficient rocket ever developed. It is claimed the best known rocket in use to-day has an efficiency of less than three per cent., while the Goddard rocket has an efficiency of 63 per cent. The rocket lias been developed in a -special la-hratory at Worcester ’tech, and the signing of the armistice prevented it being put to actual use in warfare against the Germans, as all the loan! tests had been completed. These tests, made by models, showed that a rocket weighing thirty pounds equipped with the Goddard system of propulsion, could ba sent into the air far above the earth’s atmosphere. j The Goddard rocket is propelled by a perfected gas engine installed in the ’ lower part of the shell, the explosions ! that generate the power coming from cartridges that are fed into the chamber by a- clock like time device. The , range of the rocket is limited only by tiie amount of propelling cartridges it could he fitted to carry. The rocket does not require a cannon to start it on its flight, the journey being started from any point where a man can get. : The weapon feature of the rickot is in its head, where a chamber is fitted to contain high explosive gas. Men who have followed the devblopment of Dr. Goddard’s rocket claim it can lie made as efficient in naval warfare ns in land ha Ltles. j