TORPEDO KITE NEW ENGINE OF WARFARE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3283, 31 July 1911, Page 2

TORPEDO KITE NEW ENGINE OF WARFARE.

REMARKABLE CONTRIVANCE TO BE GIVEN A THOROUGH TEST BY THE ENGLISH.

The War Office is at present considering a new engine of destruction for use against airmen, in the shape of a dirigible aerial torpedo which, its inventor claims, can be kept afloat for an indefinite period, lowered, elevated and moved in any direction at the will of the operator. The inventor is W. Spencer, who is at present lying ill in the Greenwich Hospital for Seamen, as the result of a hatch falling on him on shipboard near Durban, Natal. Otherwise, the invention would have been tested on Monday last. “ The invention, which is patented, is simple,” he said, “and consists principally of a kite, which, carrying fulminate of mercury, one of the most explosive substances known, can he guided in a perfect circle from the ground by the operator. It took me three years 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 seacoast. 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. I found, too, that I could easily bring it down from 4000 feet to within six feet of the ground, yet not take in an inch of cord, and then send it up again.

“ The size of kite I find best is one or two feet spuare. It carries an arrangement which explodes the fulminate of mercury the moment it comes in contact with anything, and it would blow away any airship yet designed. “ A dirigible airship could use one of these torpedoes to protect itself against aeroplanes,” concluded Spencer, who says he will give the War Office a demonstration of his invention as soon as he is discharged from the hospital.