"Death Stroke"

"In tests already conducted, holes were burned in two-inch steel plates at a distance of one mile. Dead trees have been fired at the same distance and animal life has been snuffed out at distances ranging from two to seven miles. Dummy planes also have been destroyed in air tests. . . . There is no doubt at all that this stroke could be sent in any desired direction for 20 miles."

Utmost secrecy always shrouds the structural details of new munitions of war. This one, announced last week by its inventor, Dr. Edwin R. Scott, is called the "death stroke" or "canned lightning." The Navy Department, which has been in touch with Dr. Scott's researches, hinted that the ultraviolet ray was involved, but Dr. Scott stated specifically: "There is no ray or beam about it."*

Dr. Scott promised other and more spectacular performances of the "stroke." He sought an antiquated battleship upon which to demonstrate. In Washington, officials had no definite plans for supplying the battleship but followed the inventor's work closely, deeply interested.

As well they might. A native of Detroit, Dr. Scott was for nine years a student and protege of no less a personage than the late Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, wizened wizard of the General Electric Co. at Schenectady, N. Y., in whose laboratory more than once there was manufactured a miniature thunderstorm with artificial lightning.

*Last year (TIME, Apr. 21, 1924), Inventor H. Grindell-Matthews of England announced a "death ray," a principle alleged to stop airplane or other engines at great heights, to ignite airplanes' wing fabric if the motor was protected by insulation. The Matthews "ray" would kill or disable infantry and its inventor said: "In the near future, machine guns will be found only in museums."