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Show pravnnre of: I (1) Radio-controlled roc-:-t or f'i'ial torpedo dui-iKd on (.:;; i-! ins; patents. 12) Radio-operaieu machine gun I of the type now successfully tried in laboratory tests. (3) Interceptor ray for precision pre-cision firing on distant enemy positions. (4) Shells to explode instantly within forts, warships and tanks alter first piercing the toughest armor plate. (5) Air-conea machine gun, almost as light as a shoulder rifle, rif-le, which could be fired continuously contin-uously without overheating. (6) Flat nir-rvM-vlori r Government Ask For New War Inventions Any gimi'rni'k or pulr.et invented those days may be a new war engine en-gine tomorrow. Military authorities say the world armament race has become so fabulous they cannot afford to overlook Uie most humble device. So, they say, if you do build that better mousetrap, don't let the world beat a path to your door until Uncle Sam looks it over, You may have the making mak-ing of a weapon to confound his enemies. uu.i.u iiiiic iui streamline mounting in airplane wings, reducing wind resistance and increasing speed and armaments. arma-ments. (7) Recoil mechanism for mounting mount-ing 75-millimeter cannon on super-bombers. C8) Oxygen helmets for close off-shore submarine landing of specially equipped infantry. (9) Two-way radio for combat communication between airplanes and tanks. (10) A long-range anti-aircraft gun, possibly 45 mm. calibre, which -rould fire heavier shells and faster than anything in use abroad. No official would discuss such a list, but it is freely said that 400 new or improved items of national na-tional defense are in the works. The government is by no means I hard up for ideas, nor does it wish to give the impression that it cannot can-not take care of itself or that it isnt ahead of others in designing de-signing modern combat equipment. Army arsenals and navy research re-search laboratories have money and experts to experiment with a tremendous number of secret military machines. The U. S. Patent Pat-ent Office checks 75,000 applications applica-tions annually for possible use in manufacturing war implements, imple-ments, and the National Inventors Inven-tors Council exhausts another 35,-000 35,-000 designs. American armed forces, for-ces, backed by Yankee ingenuity and British experience in the European war, are getting the finest material in the world. The gimcrack and gadget are important,, officials say, because American Inventive genius is riding rid-ing its higest tide and no one knows when all this is going to result in another invention perhaps per-haps as revolutionary as -airplane, submarine, machine gun, smoke-. smoke-. less powder and rifled cannon. Army and navy high commands do not encourage obviously "nut" inventions such as the Civil War's curved-barrel musket for crosseyed cross-eyed soldiers. There are thousands of screwball notions today, but it is the business of the National Inventors In-ventors Council to spot them and encourage promising talent to try again. Many inventions useful to the military services have resulted from an inventor turning his attention at-tention from his own pet project -oHnnol rlpfpnsp Here are some of the things the government would like private and commercial inventors in-ventors to work on: Explosives from hydrocarbon vapors. ' Rocket-propelled projectiles. Air centrifugal and electro-magnet gusts. Automatic mines for land and sea. Better . aircraft brakes. A lubrication system to keep an aircraft engine oiled during the first few minutes of a power dive. More efficient aircraft propel- lers, and better engine pumps. An aircraft turbine engine much lighter than those now used. Catapults and retarding devices. devi-ces. Aircraft ice-prevention devices and refueling equipment. Remote control for aerial and marine torpedoes, land vehicles, ships and other combat weapons. weap-ons. Improved gun and bomb sights. Devices to locate objects by sound, heat, radiant energy or other known or unknown rays. Light, protective armored clothing. cloth-ing. Improved automatic anti-aircraft guns and small arms. Gasoline injection equipment more effective than the carburetor. carbure-tor. Military men say they do not particularly expect a mystery ; weapon. Battle-turning inventions inven-tions usually are well known in advance almost always are discredited dis-credited at first, and become effective ef-fective only after long periods of experiment and improvement when some rrulitary power finally decides de-cides to give them a try. So it was with the ancient cross-bow, the breech-loading rifle and the gatling gun. . Experts say that constant Improvement Im-provement of present American equipment more likely will turn the trick whether the new ideas come from the thousands of trained technicians familiar with military needs or from some obscure ob-scure Inventor who unwittingly chances upon a brand new idea. Conway P. Coe, commissioner of patents, insists the United States will emerge as the future great world power because of its scientists who, he says, originated originat-ed every weapon of consequence now employed by nations at war. "These nations," he says, "have merely adapted American material to their own style of fighting. Is it not reasonable that we who invented these things can make them much more effective ef-fective for our own use?" Coe says things will begin to hum from a military standpoint when automotive engineers and the technical experts of other great American industries begin turning out the scores of secret war paraphernalia requested by the army and navy. It would be much easier to ransack ran-sack the gold vaults at Fort Knox than to draw out the slightest word on what ordnance factories are doing. But informed persons per-sons are watching for the ap- |