TORPEDO KITE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1917, Page 3

TORPEDO KITE.

NiBAV ENGINE OF WARFARE. The British War Office is considering a new engine of destruction fpr use against airmen, in the shape of a dirigible aerial torpedo which, its inventor claims, can be kept afloat for an indefinite period, lowered, and moved in any direction at the will of the operator. The inventor is AA 7 . Spencer, who is at present lying ill in the Greenwich Hospital for "Seamen, as the result of a batch falling on him on shipboard near Durban. Natal. Otherwise, the invention would have been tested earlier. "The invention, which is patented, is simple')" savs Spejncer, "and consists principally of a kite, which, carrying fulminate' of mcrcurv, one of the most explosives substances known, can ibe guided in a perfect circle from the ground by the operator. It took me three vears to work out the proper shape to get this result. The total cost of the thing would not exceed ss. "When I was in Durban I performed many experiments with it at a lonely part" of the sea-coast. For instance, I sent up three .balloons that, owing to varying wind currents, went three separate ways, yet I was able to steer the torpedo so as to explode them all. 1 found, too, that I could easily bring it down from 4000 feet to within six feet of the ground, yet not take » an inch of cord" and then sent it up again. "The size of the kite I find best is one or two feet square. It carries an arrangement which explodes the fulminate of mercury the moment it conies into contact With anything, and it, would 'blow awav any airship yet designed. "A dirigible airship could use one 0 these torpedoes to protect itself against wwlViU." concluded Spencer, who Tavs he will Rive the War Office a demonstration of his invention as soon as he is discharged from the hospital