German secret magnetic weapon against battleships according to the Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph dated Saturday 10 July 1909

An item dated London, England 9 July referred to a statement of the The Standard correspondent at Berlin, Germany. He wrote that a German invented a huge magnet cog-wheel shaped and which connected by an electric cable with the shore. The magnet when activated could “throw battleships out of their course, and machinery out of gear, thereby rendering the gun useless.” The Monday edition however referred to British experts that this submarine magnet was ‘impracticable and unworkable for many reasons.”