image of Harry Gridell Matthews, inventor

The Death Ray

By 1924 Matthews was working on his infamous 'Death Ray' , a means of transmitting energy without wires. He first became interested in this after hearing reports that French aircraft had been mysteriously brought down over Germany by some unknown ray. Matthews doubted the existence of such a 'mysterious ray' at the time for he noticed that all the unexplained downing of aircraft seem to occur within the close proximity of high-powered radio stations and assumed that there must have been a connection. Matthews knew that radio waves could carry electrical energy and considered the possibility that an aeroplane's magneto was being shorted out when it flew close to a high-powered radio transmitting aerial, causing the engine to stall. Convinced that he could make a workable device to transmit energy without wires, he drew up some plans and started a research programme. It wasn't long before Matthews and his team achieved some encouraging results. With his apparatus he was able to light an Osglim lamp, melt plate glass, explode gunpowder, kill vermin and stop a small petrol engine at a distance of sixty-four feet. So how did his 'Death Ray' work? It consisted of two main parts; a specialised electrical generator and a 'carrier beam' to act as a conductor and to direct the electrical energy. The carrier beam provided an uninterrupted path along which the power was sent, acting as a conductor of electricity. It was the electrical power transmitted along the carrier beam that could be used to burn the windings within a magneto, causing an engine to stall.[12]

poster for the Death Ray Film
The 'Death Ray' film [K]

To promote his work Matthews made a short film demonstrating his 'Death Ray' in action. Billed as 'The Death Ray - The Most Startling and Breath Taking Motion Picture Ever Made!' it was released both in Britain and America.[13] News of the 'Death Ray' reached Whitehall and the government asked if Matthews would give them a demonstration. On May 26th 1924 a select gathering of academics, civil servants and officials called in at number 2 Harewood Place to see the 'Death Ray' in action. With his device he was able to switch an Osglim lamp on and off and stall a motorcycle engine. Matthews claimed that with sufficient power it would be possible to shoot down aeroplanes and explode munition dumps.

 

Picture of Matthews using Death Ray

Matthews (back to camera) operating the 'Death Ray' [L]

But the government were unconvinced and sceptical, particularly as Matthews wouldn't explain how it worked in any detail. So the government proposed the demonstration be repeated with a motorcycle engine supplied and placed in situ by government technicians. Should the test be successful the inventor was to be awarded the sum of £1,000. But he refused their offer on the grounds that a French firm had made him a much better offer based on exactly the same demonstration the government had just witnessed. Matthews went to France where he collaborated with Eugene Royer and a French company who had made him an offer of more money and facilities to work. [14]

The British Government couldn't risk the 'Death Ray' going abroad and falling into the hands of a foreign power. Questions were asked in the Commons about the danger of such a device going abroad. So the High Court granted an injunction to Matthews' investors that prevented the inventor from selling the rights of the 'Death Ray' to another party. Major Wimperis, a government official, called in on Matthews to negotiate a new deal, but the inventor had already left for France. Rushing to Croydon, Wimperis was too late, Matthews' aeroplane had already left for the Continent.[15]

In 1935 Major Wimperis asked Robert Watson-Watt, the pioneer of radar, to look into the feasibility of a 'death ray'. Watson-Watt's work in this field led him to discover the principle behind radar.[16]

There has always been some doubt as to whether Matthews ever actually invented a 'Death Ray'. But documents held in the French patent office show a patent registered for the 'Projection à distance Phénomenès invisibles de haute fréquency électrique' - or the 'remote projection of invisible high frequency electricity' in other words, the 'Death Ray' - filed in October 1924 under the name Eugene Royer, Matthews' close associate.[17]