Some newspapers have rather lost their heads about what is
melodramatically called the Death Ray. On behalf of Mr. Grindell-Matthews, the inventor of the ray, it has been said that this invisible influence will stop a motor at a range of over fifty miles by putting the magneto out of action. We might believe this, but when we are told that the Death Ray is also a-kind of Life Ray, as it will cure cancer, we begin to have our doubts. Several persons are experimenting with rays which in due course may be entitled to the name of Death Ray, and it is quite possible that in the more or less distant future the chief defences against aeroplanes will be invisible rays. Nevertheless, we cannot see that the Air Ministry could have behaved otherwise than it has done, though it has received a great deal of blame from excitable and credu- lous persons. Mr. Grindell-Matthews was by no means ignored, as has been said. He was given opportunities to prove the value of his experiment, and it was not till this week that in his own laboratory he proved to the Ministry that he could stop an engine and light an electric lamp at a distance of about fifteen yards. The Ministry asked for more experiments, and promised a modest subsidy ; but the inventor flew to Paris, ostensibly to sell his invention to a French company, pursued by reporters and by writs issued by persons who state that they were his collaborators.
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