Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1916 — LIQUID FIRE IS THE INVENTION OF AUSTRALIAN [ARTICLE]

LIQUID FIRE IS THE INVENTION OF AUSTRALIAN

Eccentric John Macgarrigle Sold War Device to German Government. / KEPT COMPOSITION A SECRET .Zealous Inventor Wanted to Rid Land of Noxious Bushes —Observers Describe Tests of Machine—Was Man of Remarkable Talents. Sydney, Australia. —The German liquid fire-spraying device in use on the war’s western front sprang not from Teutonic brains, but from theK head of an eccentric Australian, John Macgarrigle. This fact has just been learned here, but it has ample corroboration. Macgarrigle is dead, but the hideous engine he contrived still exists, and it is being. recalled by intimates of his that several years ago he ■went to Germany and there sold the thing to the military powers of that land. He had previously tried the ■British ■war office and the Commonwealth (government, but the former declined to treat with him on the ground that his invention was in contravention to the laws of humanity and the principles of The Hague convention, while the latter simply ignored his proffer apparently as being that of a crank. He also tried the French or the Italian government —it is not certain which — with equally fruitless results, but when it came to the kaiser’s country he had a warm reception. “The German government snapped it up," he told several of his friends. “I was over to Germany some time ago and I got this off and several other patents." Macgarrigle, commonly called “Jimmy" Macgarrigle, was a genius, but, like most of his stamp, erratic and unbusinesslike, and he died poor and virtually unknown. One of his traits was excessive secretiveness although there can be no question that he was a wonder in his way—which forbade his committing any of his inchoate Ideas to paper, with the result that they went to the grave with him; and he was so impracticable in judging his own works that the more humane of them could not be commercialized for his and the general good. So, beyond the fire-squirt and the few other inventions which he “got off” in Germany, there is little to show for his versatility and ingenuity. His “Fire-Squirt Ship.” Macgarrigle’s home was at Warnfceral, near Gosford, New South Wales, where he maintained a laboratory. George Z. Dupain, a friend, writing of the old fellow to the Daily Telegraph, says: “After dwelling on the virtues of bis quick-drying cement, anti-fouling paint, patent boot polish, a street car ticket system, and other things, he led me back to his house, and showed me the plan of a peculiar ■vessel which looked like a man-of-war. It was roughly drawn, for old MacgarTigle was a bad penman, but as soon as he began to explain matters I understood. This was what he called his patent fire-squirt ship. It was built to carry a certain liquid below the waterline, and in every portion of the hull there were ball-shaped affairs, which, he explained, could not be pierced by any modern projectile. Indeed, the whole vessel seemed to be made in such a way that no portion

was other than round. He had certain receptacles for enormous pumps worked by hydraulic pressure, and these pumps would throw a liquid up to three or four miles, and even more, according to their size. “He explained that a German had invented a pump to throw a liquid five miles. Whether this was correct or not I never took the trouble to find out, but when old Macgarrigle had explained more detailß, which I could not quite follow, he told me about his fire squirt. He pledged me to secrecy. “He told me that he had found a chemical compound which would take fire when it came into contact with the air. With further experimentation he had resolved this into a liquid form, preserving the same properties, *and then he hit upon applying it to war purposes. This liquid, he explained, would" burn a certain time, and whpn on fire its density was reduced and it would run about anywhere and burn everything it came in contact with. A constant stream of the stuff would burn incessantly. Its temperature was high enough to produce a dull red heat in either iron or steel, and if the pressure in the firing apparatus was increased it would shrivel up everything it came intcf contact with. He went on to explain that it could be fired in a modern shell which, when it had burst, would spread the liquid. He became so enthusiastic over this invention that his eyes glittered and he paced his laboratory, making convulsive gestures and saying that the nation that bought this invention would have the power of controlling the world and, if necessary, of stopping war altogether. “I began to think the man was a maniac and looked around for a method of escape in case he might go completely off his head. However, he calmed down and I took courage to question him about this ghastly machine, even demanding that he should give me proof that what he said was true. He laughed and said that if I came up next evening at dusk he would prove the truth of his remarks. ► First Exhibit of Liquid Fire. “Well, I went. Furthermore, I took some friends. Macgarrigle did not object in the least. He took us outside on the slope of Mount Pleasant (the inventor lived on Mount Pleasant) and made us all sit down at about ten yards distant from him. He disappeared for a while in the bush and then came back with what I imagined to be an old oil drum and an ordinary large garden spray. I could not see what he was doing because he turned his back on us, but presently he held the spray up in the air. “I saw him stand firmly as if to make an effort, then he quickly pressed the handle of the squirt and a long stream of white fire shot out from the muzzle of the spray anil fell to the ground, there burning brightly for an instant. “The thing was done so quickly and all was over in such a short time that we were nonplused. Then Macgarrigle walked calmly toward us and handed me the spray, saying; ‘Well, what do you think of my invention now?’ He gave us then a lecture on the possibilities of the fire squirt. I examined the spray carefully (it was just light enough to distinguish objects at short range), pulled out the plunger, smelled it and tried to seek any clue as to the nature of the stuff. When Macgarrigle saw what I was doing he laughed heartily and said I wouldn’t find anything there. However, I noted that he had evidently Bcrewed offc the top of the spray when squirting the liquid, because he had failed to put it back properly, and also that the leather plunger was slightly charred. I carefully noted the place where the fire had fallen and took the trouble to examine it early next day, and, sure enough, all the herbage was burned and wherever the liquid had run only charred vegetation remained. I was astounded. I perceived immediately that his words true, and the possibilities of his invention were so mighty as to make me temporarily shudder.” Mr. Dupain became much attached to Macgarrigle and spent many hours with him. Once when he meant to pay the inventor a surprise visit he learned that the old man had departed

for Europe; but as soon as he learned of Macgarrigle’s return he sought his home and heard from Macgarrigle that he had sold his fire squirt to Ger many. It appears from an account of Macgarrigle given to the Daily Telegraph by another friend, a newspaper man, that the fire machine was designed also for the destruction of prickly pear which is one of the curses of Australia and has already ruined huge tracts of good land in Queensland. This contributor says; “He told me that he had'offered tc clear the whole of the pear in Queensland under certain terms, but the government had turned it down. This seemed at first inexplicable, as at the time the government was offering a reward of $50,000 for any effective plan for getting rid of the pest. When 1 told him this he scouted the idea of anything so paltry and dealt with a sum of that sort with the contempt of a multimillionaire. “He said that the only condition under which he would show his hand was that he should receive all expenses and get the freehold of all the land he cleared. As there were at the time about 20,000,000 acres affected one may understand the reason for turning down the offer. The area now, by the way, runs into 30,000,000 acres. As I expressed doubt about the effectiveness of his plan, he invited me to his place the following night to see the squirt at work. But it was a condition that no one was to accompany me. I kept the appointment. “He began operations by seating me in a chair, from which I was not to move. By this means he made it impossible for me to get a close glimpse of the machine, but the drum which carried the oil seemed in the darkness to be similar in shape to the receptacle which appears in pictures of those Germans at the front engaged in this 'sort of warfare. He told me he was ready, after pumping up the machine, and then let it go. It ejected a constant stream of liquid fire from a short hose length for some minutes, spurting over a distance of about forty feet. With the same mysterious manner that he had begun operations, he bundled the plant up and put it away in a room and locked the door. “Then he sat down beside me and yarned. After urging that this thing would not only destroy prickly pear, but noxious shrubbery and weeds of all sorts, he told me that what it was originally intended for was an instrument of warfare. ‘Man,’ he said with great confidence, ‘this thing would destroy soldiers as if they were rats. What bayonet charge could stand up against it? My idea is not a small squirt like this, but as large as a big fire-fighting hose sending out a stream of fire with as much force and volume as the biggest water hydrant in Sydney.’ "A character of this sort naturally aroused interest, especially as he began to talk about synthetic rubber which he could make for 25 cents a pound (at a time when the genuine article was about $2.50); cements he could make at absurdly low rates, tiles, bricks, explosives, anti-fouling paint, boot dressings and other things. I began to think that I had struck an Edison,” The journalist believes that Macgarrigle sold the explosive just tioned to the Germans, and he adds; "It was terribly destructive, as an equal quantity of it with gelignite tore a hole in a piece of galvanized iron four times its size.” Fred Wright of Sydney robs the accounts of Macgarrigle of something of their romance by saying that the inventor, whom he knew well, "frequently suggested ‘wildcat’ schemes for the employment of chemicals for the destruction of prickly pear and the extermination of rabbits.” And he goes on; “Mr. Macgarrigle’s sprpy consisted of a solution of phosphorus in an inflammable liquid. He tried bisulphide of carbon as a solvent for his phosphorus and then mixed this with other combustible liquids. There was nothing particularly original in the ides and it was not at all safe to handle. We afterward experimented with hydrogen phosphide for fire sprays. His explosive consisted of a grass-tree gum compound.”