Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1919 — NEW WEAPON HAS RANGE OF 200 MILES [ARTICLE]

NEW WEAPON HAS RANGE OF 200 MILES

Worcester, Mass. —A rocket as an agent of warfare over land or sea. having a perpendicular range of 70 miles and a horizontal range of 200 miles or more, and capable of carrying powerful charges of explosives or deadly gases, has been Invented here by Dr. Robert H. Goddard, professor of physics at Clark college. In his experiments, which he an-

nounced have attained success, he had the co-operation and worked by the authority of the war department and the Smithsonian institution in Washington, and Clark university and the Worcester Polytechnic institute. Compared with it, the most powerful implements of modern warfare are rendered ineffective, , scientists familiar with the invention assert. Under the system of propulsion worked out by Doctor Goddard the rocket could rise to a height above the earth’s atmosphere, where its range would be increased greatly. Its propulsive power—which military men say is a new contribution to the science of ballistics —lies in an internal combustion engine of high power. fed either by finely pulverized smokeless powder or charges of liquid explosive at regular intervals regulated by clockwork. Experiments with miniature models conducted here have fully, demonstrated its success against an enemy. Instead t of requiring a cannon or mortar to start It, one man from any spot can launch it without apparatus. The destructive agency is in the head of the rocket, though It can be adapted for photographic work as well, the apparatus being automatically released from the rocket proper and descending with a parachute. In the rocket’s simplest form, manufactured St small cost, a foot soldier would become the equivalent of a field cannon for a single shot, for he would carry on his shoulder an instrument of destruction, with its head of gas or high explosive, and fire it from any point where his legs would taka him. And that would often be wherf cannon could not be moved.