WAR INVENTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1940, Page 2

WAR INVENTIONS

SUGGESTIONS TO BRITISH GOVERNMENT GREAT NUMBERS POURING IN. THE “INCENDIARY LEAF.” (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 10. Dr D. R. Pye, Director of Scientific Research to the Ministry of Aircraft Production, in a broadcast, revealed that the so-called “incendiary leaf,” recently announced as being used in British air flights over Germany, was partly a result of a suggestion put forward to him a few months ago by a private inventor. Many changes have been made from the scheme originally proposed to make .it practical, but the leaf as eventually used undoubtedly owed much to the suggestions of this inventor. “Since the war started,” he said,, “well over 20,000 inventions have been sent to the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Aircraft Production. They come from people all over Britain and the Dominions and from abroad. Now that the air war is really upon us they are pouring in at the rate of about 3000 a week.

“Every letter or memorandum th\at comes in has to be scrutinised to see whether is contains an idea or the germ of an idea which might help win the war. There are some 30 scientists, engineers, technicians and clerks who devote their whole energies to sifting and analysing the flood of ideas, and, in addition, a distinguished scientist and an engineer of long experience who act as referees in difficult cases. “This is a scientific war. and the most eminent Minister knows he cannot himself judge the merits of say, a new bombsight. He must get the advice of experts. The staff engaged wholly on examining inventions consists of well-qualified scientists and engineers, but of course they are not experts on all subjects and they have to consult suitable specialists. “Answering letters is not easy because we like, where possible, to give a reason if we have decided not to take up some proposal. But often it is impossible to say why some idea cannot be adopted without giving away information which might be useful to the enemy. Suggestions which have proved fruitful, however, we want to be unpleasant surprises.”