Editing Chain Home (section)

===Tales of destructive "rays"===
[[File:Grindell-Matthews death ray.jpg|thumb|A 1925 radio magazine photograph of Grindell-Matthews'<!--possessive, remember?--> death ray]]

In 1923–24 inventor [[Harry Grindell Matthews]] repeatedly claimed to have built a device that projected energy over long ranges and attempted to sell it to the War Office, but it was deemed to be fraudulent.{{sfn|Clarke|2014|pp=48-51}} His attempts spurred on many other inventors to contact the British military with claims of having perfected some form of the fabled electric or radio "[[death ray]]".{{sfn|Clarke|2014|pp=48-51}} Some turned out to be frauds and none turned out to be feasible.<ref name="Stephen Budiansky 2005, pages 192-193">{{cite book |first=Stephen |last=Budiansky |title=Air Power: The Men, Machines, and Ideas That Revolutionized War, from Kitty Hawk to Iraq |publisher=Penguin |date=2005 |pages=192–193}}</ref>

Around the same time, a series of stories suggested another radio weapon was being developed in Germany. The stories varied, with one common thread being a death ray, and another that used the signals to interfere with an engine's [[ignition system]] to cause the engine to stall. One commonly repeated story involved an English couple who were driving in the [[Black Forest]] on holiday and had their car fail in the countryside. They claimed they were approached by soldiers who told them to wait while they conducted a test, and were then able to start their engine without trouble when the test was complete. This was followed shortly thereafter by a story in a German newspaper with an image of a large radio antenna that had been installed on [[Feldberg (Black Forest)|Feldberg]] in the same area.{{sfn|Jones|1978|p=50}}

Although highly skeptical about claims of engine-stopping rays and death rays, the Air Ministry could not ignore them as they were theoretically possible.<ref name="Stephen Budiansky 2005, pages 192-193"/> If such systems could be built, it might render bombers useless.{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=44}} If this were to happen, the night bomber deterrent might evaporate overnight, leaving the UK open to attack by Germany's ever-growing air fleet. Conversely, if the UK had such a device, the population could be protected.{{sfn|Clark|1997|p=28}}

In 1934, along with a movement to establish a scientific committee to examine these new types of weapons, the RAF offered a £1,000 prize to anyone who could demonstrate a working model of a death ray that could kill a sheep at 100 yards;{{sfn|Heazell|2011|p={{pn|date=April 2024}}}} it went unclaimed.{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=44}}