DEATH-DEALING HEAT RAYS.

The news published here to-day that a British scientist has discovered how to produce a heat ray powerful enough to eliminate the aeroplane as a factor in war creates some interest, partly because various American inventors during several years past have made very similar claims based upon interesting experimental results.

The late Charles Steinmetz, before twenty members of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents visiting the great works of the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York State, last summer, “sent a miniature ray of lightning” from one side of the room to the other, completely destroying a miniature village which had been erected as a target. Dr. Steinmetz, who had a reputation in the United States as an electrical wizard with far greater scientific qualifications than Edison ever claimed, believed implicitly that it would not be difficult to establish an aerial zone of fifty miles within which, by means of artificial lightning, everything could be reduced to ashes or a molten mass. “Nothing,” said Dr. Steinmetz, “is impossible nowadays. It is my opinion, based on actual work, that one may send a destructive force through the air just as easily as we now send music or speech. It is merely a question of a few years.” Another American, Professor Tesla, made similar claims to eliminate the aeroplane, but by a different method. Tesla has been asked by various scientific bodies here to read a paper establishing his claim from the standpoint of science.