Revealed: The unsung scientist who invented the 'death ray' and inspired the creators of Batman and Flash Gordon

At last, a tribute to the forgotten genius who was light years ahead of his time

CURSES! Ming the Merciless is assembling his intergalactic troops on Planet Mongo and is about to annihilate Earth!

There's only one thing for it - send for Harry Grindell Matthews.

Who? Er... That'll be Harry 'Death Ray' Grindell Matthews, eccentric British inventor and the genius behind a real-life laser-gun that Flash Gordon and his comic-book colleagues could only have dreamed of in the 1920s.

Mr Grindell Matthews designed the fiendish machine in the wake of the 1914-18 war as a weapon for knocking enemy aircraft out of the sky.

It so inspired public imagination that the 'ray gun' became the weapon of choice for Flash Gordon and the evil Ming - as well as for generations of schoolchildren brought up on science fiction adventure.

Forgotten: Harry Grindell Matthews (left). In 1924 his 'Death Ray' was publicly tested in London (above)

Star Wars and Dr Who later employed similar technology - and Harry's subsequent invention of the 'sky projector' may have been the inspiration for the 'bat signal' that summoned Batman from his cave whenever mankind was in peril.

Grindell Matthews also invented the world's first mobile phone, and demonstrated to King George V how the drivers of two cars could communicate wirelessly.

Other triumphs included a remote control system for warships, an autopilot for military aircraft, an 'Aerophone' for ground to air communication, a submarine detector - and, on a non-military note - what were claimed to be the world's first talking films.



But in a depressingly familiar epilogue to the brilliance of British inventors, the man once described by Winston Churchill as a genius is largely forgotten.

Now a book, Death Ray - The Secret Life of Harry Grindell Matthews, pays tribute to his foresight and chronicles some extraordinary inventions that were light years ahead of their time.

Ahead of his time: Mr Matthews tests his 'Sky Projector' which is believed to have inspired Batman because it resembles the 'bat signal'

Mr Grindell Matthews, born in Winterbourne, near Bristol in 1880, acquired a passion for things military after serving bravely in the Boer War, in which he was wounded. But he always had one ambition. He wanted to change the face of modern science.

The Aerophone was one of his earliest successes - a communication device that could be used to talk to pilots or vehicles fitted with a receiver. Granted, it was about the size of a shoebox - but in 1911 it ranked as the world's first mobile phone.

In 1914, he was awarded £25,000 by the government after inventing a boat that could be controlled by a light beam. The military wanted to apply the technology to tackling bombing raids by German Zeppelins, but the device was never used.

The Death Ray came in 1923 and propelled him to national attention. He started work on the project with a view to selling it to the War Office.



But frustrated by attempts to interest the military in his invention (and angry at being ridiculed) he called a press conference to launch it

The idea of a 'death ray' became standard fare in science fiction comics, including Flash Gordon, right



The machine worked by harnessing electricity, then transmitting it via an ultra-violet beam at a mechanised target, principally an enemy aircraft. It was designed to disable the plane's magneto, which provides an engine with ignition, this causing it to plunge from the sky.

Harry demonstrated it at the launch by stopping a motorcycle in its tracks at 50ft. It could also be used to ignite gunpowder. Not to mention killing mice at 20 paces ... and almost blinding the inventor in one unfortunate firing.



With a delightful sense of mischief, he further employed it to stop cars as they drove by his house.

The launch of the Death Ray caused such a stir that questions were asked about it in the Commons.

But the scientist's creation never quite made it into production. The huge amount of power required to fuel it made it impractical. So while his Death Ray lived on in fiction, it died its own death in scientific history.







The 'bat signal' used by Commissioner Gordon to summon the caped hero in the Batman comics and films resembles Mr Matthews' death ray



Undeterred by a series of setbacks, including being declared bankrupt in 1934, he continued to work.



One invention was the Flying Flea - a tiny, unconventional aircraft. He also turned his attention to high speed travel, believing rocket power was the way forward.



In October 1936, he wrote an article for the Daily Mail entitled Travel By Rocket in 19 Years.

He collapsed and died on September 11, 1941, at his mountain retreat near Swansea, while helping the Allied war effort.



Biographer Jonathan Foster, a science teacher from Nottingham, said: 'He was truly an amazing man, way ahead of his time, and deserves to be remembered.



'He was nothing short of a genius.'