Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-08-28
NEW INVENTIONS FOR
USE AGAINST GERMANY
United States Had Many Things
Ready When Armistice Was
Signed, Declares Eminent
Scientist in Closing Number
of Chautauqua Program

Montraville Wood. scientist and In
ventor, formerly associated with the
Edison company and in the employ OF
the United States Secret Service during
the war. electrified the audience in
the closing number of the Redpath
Chautauqua program Thursday. and
made some Of the peeps gasp when
he told of the new inventions which
the United States had ready to use
against Germany If the war had lasted
few more months. He demonstrated
the gyroscope, the depth bomb, the de-
tectophone, which he said was used to
great advantage by the allies during
the war, the ultraviolet ray. and the
torpedo with ears the last being an
invention of his own which was used
with great success against the submar-
inc. It was the most startling, as well
as the most instructive lecture of the
| entire program. Mr. Wood carried
large amount of apparatus for demon
stration of every point
Details were gone into with the
gyroscope, Mr.. Wood having several
working models with which lie demon
strated the effectiveness of his won
derful invention for maintaining the
balance of almost anything, and which
| has been used with great success In
aeroplanes to right them in case OF
accident, and which now bein6
used on ships to keep them from rock
ing. and In many other. ways
In the first place, Mr. Wood ex-
planned how the sun, with its power
| full light, pushes the earth away from
itself and keeps the earth moving about
| II. He explained the force OF gravity
as being due to the atmosphere around
. 1,n t,,vp tpu M
around every "a hours in such a man
ner that there is a pushing tendency
| toward the earth, rather then because
| the earth attracts to itself.
| Mr.. Wood told how Alexander Graham
Bell invented the first mammoth balloon
which Is now known as Zeppelin, be-
cause Count Zeppelin of Germany Sc
cured the plans from Mr. Bell and built
the great ships for Germany. He told of
| other American inventions which the
Germans had stolen and put their rubber
stamp upon as being of German origin.
including the submarine.
The speaker also told of the invention
of poison gas by the French in 1872. The
French would not use it at that time In
war, because they considered it un-
sportsmanlike and inhuman weapon of
war. and it was later agreed by all of
gas should not be used in warfare 1t was
this agreement which kept the allies from
using gas in the last war until Germany
began to use it,
| Then, when 1t was finally found that
1t would be necessary to use poison gas
| to combat the the Germans. the chemists
| of this country were urged to invent new
| five seconds and against which the gas
| masks Of the Germans, and 1t was found.
| Pucic acid a gas deadly that two
drops of 1t would kill any living thing in
| five second. and against which the gas
| mask had absolutely no effect. was manu-
| featured by the ton from the peach pits
collected all over this country. which
| the people were told were being gathered
| to make gas masks. This deadly gas was
on the western front in large quantities
ready to be carried over in the form of
bombs and dropped by allied aviators
over the German lines, when the armistice
came. 1t was never used. and later was
| brought back and dumped into the ocean.
Mr. Wood showed n ful-sised depth
bomb, which was filled with T. n. T.. an
explosive 900 times more powerful than
dynamite. and told how these were
dropped upon submarines with great
| effectiveness
The detectophone, a little instrument
which might be concealed about the per-
son, and which recorded accurately the
sounds which were emitted in its vicin-
| ity, was explained by Mr.. Wood and
| Its use in detecting crooks before the
war and in searching out pro-Germans
| and spies during the wan, was gone
| into in detail. Mr.. Wood himself as a
member of the secret service. used the
detectophone with great success and per-
c. 11,r
dsloyal people In this country. With
this little machine also. placed along our
| shores. the arrival of the German subma-
rine Deutschland was made known to
people in this country when it was ten
miles out at sea. and a tug was sent
out to meet the visitor. much to the Ger
| man captains establishment.
Mr. Wood said that he knew, from
his own Investigations. that Mexico was
| not neutral during the war. and he told
OF wireless stations through which Ger
many was communicating with people I'm
this country through Mexico.
And / think the next thing Pershing
| will want to do. will be to take a few
sharpshooters down into Mexico and clean
them up down there" said Mr.. Wood.
with the only portable commercial
| machine in the world for creating ultra
/ violet rays, according to Mr. Wood, the
| scientist demonstrated the working of
| this powerful phenomenon the tent being
| darkened for the demonstration. He told
OF how this powerful ray will purify
water. kill germs of all kinds, speed up
the crops and stimulate growth like the
rays of the sun at close range.
Mr. Wood closed with a demonstration
Of the torpedo with ears" his own in
vention. He told how this wonderful
| torpedo, tuned to the sound OF the engine
| OF some ship which 1t is intended to reach,
Will be guided to that ship when
| released. II the engine of the ship
| is stopped, the propeller of the tor
pedo Will automatically stop. and
the torpedo will go deep down
into the ocean and lie there dormant
until the engines OF the ship are again
started when 1t will again seek the boat.
continuing 1t strikes It and explodes In
this way. a submarine toward which one
of these torpedoes had been launched sim
ply could not escape. Mr.. Wood said the
success of this torpedo had been absolutely
proven In many cases. He demonstrated
the torpedo on the stage by tuning it to a
certain sound and then producing that
sound In different parts OF the stage. The
torpedo, which was mounted on a revolv-
ing standard. always swung toward the
sound. This strange machine was fitted
with ears In the nature of the detecto-
pone.
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