AN AUSTRALIAN’S INVENTION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 1 December 1916, Page 2

AN AUSTRALIAN’S INVENTION.

In a description of the new bomb invented hr Sergeant-Major Geake, the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” says:—-“It is expected that trench warfare, so far as the Allies arc concerned, at all events, will be completely revolutionised by the introduction of the new idea. To grasp the position it is necessary to remind readers that bombthrowing to any distance is now only possible with the aid of the Stokes’ gun, a piece of mechanism which is of considerable weight, and which rerunes probably the joint efforts of airce men to move and work it. If .; position in the trench becomes too warm the difficulties of shifting the gun to another spot are often suen hat it has to be abandoned for the time being, if not altogether. Supposing, too, it is necessary to cross an open space under lire with such a load there can be only one result —the wiping out of the gun-bearers and, perhaps, the loss of the machine. Contrast that with Cor.:py-Sergt. Geakc’s invention. The soldier in action m -iily asked to carry a small bar .e? steel weighing e. pound or two. and, if be requires to set up In open, a tripod that folds like an umbrella. He may go ahead at his sweet will and at a pace that will enable him to keep up with the best of his companions, give him every advantage that the cover offers the ordinarily equipped fighter, and there you are. He may leap from the trenches with his comrades and ■'set his bomb-thrower behind the smallest nossible cover, and worry off a machine-gun that would otherwise mow down his fellows like sheep; and. having accomplished this, return the steel bar to his belt and move onward again. To put the thing in simple language, the size of the projector is always the same —the small bar of steel —no matter how large the shell. Add to this the absolute certainty of aim and the terror of the new weapon will present itself. Yesterday a reporter of the “Daily Telegraph” 'was present at a demon stration of the outfit. It •hurled missiles great distances, lobbed them I more or less gracefully within a yard or so radius of one another, and left the spectator to imagine what the resultant carnage would be like when thousands of the appliances were in action. Cost counts in everything; and here again, .the inventor has the better of the deal. A Stokes gun may cost as much as £2S; the new instrument of propulsion is 3/6. And corresponding to the expenditure is the time saved in manufacture, to say nothing of reduced bulk for transit or handling. If the; bar of steel happens to be dropped in a mix-up in No Man’s Laud, there is a rifle attachment to replace it, with everything sacrificed to lightness of load and ease of.application.

Trench warfare will be revolutionised if all that is claimed for the new idea is proven, and tests have so far satisfied all expectations and demands The inventor has applied for more Patents than anyone else in Australia, but the ong, that promises to make him famous in military circles is the one under review.