EXTROPIA’S WEIRD SCIENCE: DEATH RAYS
Fans of science fiction may well recall that when H.G. Wells’s Martians set out to conquer the earth in ‘War of the Worlds’, they deployed a deadly weapon in the form of a heat ray.
While this might seem like a futuristic weapon invented by minds “immeasurably superior to ours”, there is some evidence to suggest that something like a heat ray is actually ancient technology.
We have historical accounts of such a weapon being used in ancient times. During the second Punic war, which ran from 218 to 202 BC, Archimedes was said to have focused sunlight using a series of hexagonal mirrors, and set alight Roman ships. We have some evidence that such a tale is at least remotely plausible, because in 1973 one Dr. Ioannis Sakeas deployed fifty bronze-coated mirrors and successfully recreated this legendary feat of warfare.
Fifty bronze mirrors does not sound like an altogether practical technology, and indeed it’s hard to find any genuinely practical example of a death-ray. One can, however, find claims of such weapons from inventors seeking investment.
As one might expect given his reputation as maverick inventor, Nikola Tesla was one such individual. In 1973 he told ‘Liberty’ Magazine that “it will be possible to destroy anything within 200 miles” of his directional lightning and beam weapon. But although he claimed to have several such weapons designed, none were publicly demonstrated. Still, presumably somebody thought there might be something to these claims, because the FBI took possession of Tesla’s papers when he died.
Harry Grindell Matthews. Image from wikimedia commons
Another person who claimed to have built a death ray was Henry Grindell Mathews. Once again, the reality fell short of the inventor’s boasts. Mathews promised that the finished product would knock airplanes out of the sky, but when a prototype was demonstrated to military personnel, it only managed to stop a small motor and cause a light-bulb to glow. This was in 1921 and although Mathews pitched his idea not only to his native English armed forces but also the French and American military, no such weapon was ever used in any war, so I think it’s safe to assume that he was full of it.
Matthew’s supposed death ray. Image from wikimedia commons
REFERENCES: FAR OUT by Mark Pilkington