NEW IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1943, Page 4

NEW IDEAS

INVENTIONS IN AUSTRALIA WAR NECESSITIES. WIDE RANGE OF PRODUCTION. Since the outbreak of war, like New Zealand, Australia has necessarily had to depend on its own inhabitants for new ideas and new inventions to replace previously imported goods which became practically unobtainable. In the New Guinea jungle the Japanese have run up against a new type of gun which was made in Australia. It is the Owen sub-machine gun, the invention of Mr Evelyn Owen, of Wollongong, New South Wales. Tests have proved it one of the best quick-firing guns in the world. It costs- only £8 15s. to make, against the average price of £4O for the Thompson sub-machine gun. It was easy to handle and simple to operate. Weeks of searching tests were made with the gun before manufacture of it was decided upon. Now it is being used successfully in the northern battlefronts. In New Zealand the Charlton gun has been invented by a young engineer, and it is now in production not only in New Zealand, but in other parts of the British Commonwealth. The New Zealand Home Guard has improvised a number of valuable pieces of equipment which have been accepted by the Armed Forces. Improvements in the making of tanks is another feature which stands out in Australia’s programme of inventions and improvements. Having begun the manufacture of tanks only in 'the past 12 months, Australian engineers have in troduced a feature that is revolutionising tank production throughout the world. The overseas practice previously was to rivet the armour plating in the tank hull. But it was found that rivets often killed troops where shells did not. Australia’s answer was to pour armoured tank hulls in a single steel casting, eliminating the need for any rivetting. The formula was made available to other Allied nations. Predictors for anti-aircraft guns, range finders, and the whole range of 33 infinitely precise sighting gauges that require lenses had to be made. The glass needed for these jobs was previously produced by only eight firms in the world. Most of these firms were in Europe. All types of optical instruments are now being made in Australia on a mass production basis, and some are being supplied to other Allied nations. Experts believe that this production will open up a new export evenue for Australia after the war when the country should be able to offer optical goods to the world at competitive prices. Most of the 150 main chemicals needed for explosives are now being made in Australia. Less than half of them were made there four years ago. Many of the more complex metals neded for munitions had never previously been made in Australia, but most of them are now in full swing production. After wide experiment, Australia’s steel industry has built up quantity production of steels which were formerly imported by the pound. Australia need increasing quantities of armoured plate for tanks, armoured cars and small highspeed tracked gun and troop carriers. At first, to make the armour plate, she had to import quantities of costly materials from Britain. Then the Australian steel industry used its own metals and produced the same quality plating as the British product—at quarter the cost.