Death-Rays as Life-Savers in the Third Reich - Pedro Waloschek ...

2 Science Fiction and Reality
My friend Paul, Pablo Vicente Lloyd that is, asked his father about the
German secret weapons we had discussed at school. His father was not
surprised. The British newspapers and journals he subscribed to in
Argentina mentioned death rays quite often. A famous and rather
eccentric Welsh inventor died in September 1941. He had been known
as ‘Mister Death Rays’ although his real name was Harry Grindell-
Matthews. There were many press reports about this apparently brilliant
man who during World War One had come up with some remarkable
inventions, many of which were military in character. His biography was
published in 1943 in London, although I have never seen a copy of it
myself [Ba43].
Back in 1924 Harry Grindell-Matthews had publicly presented a
device capable of producing invisible rays that could kill mice, light gun
powder and even stop a small petrol engine by upsetting its ignition, all
from a distance of only a few metres. His small set-up and the principle
he had invented allowed him to make conjectures about the possibility of
bringing down aeroplanes and destroying armies. His real hope
however, was that this invention would make future wars an
impossibility. The interest of Parliament and the British Ministry of
Aviation was awakened, but when a representative of the Ministry
exposed himself to the ‘beam’ from a distance of just a few metres
distance and consequently suffered no damage whatsoever, the
enthusiasm cooled. After all, the inventor had stated that his beam
should have the capacity of killing people at a few miles distance.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Aviation did make Grindell-Matthews a
modest offer. They would provide him with a bigger petrol engine for
further tests. He refused and moved to the USA where, as he later
declared, he sold his invention.
This is what I remember Paul’s father telling us about Grindell-
Matthews. I could confirm some of it with the help of the Internet but
this cannot be in all cases considered a reliable source.
17