Death Ray

I just fell down the rabbit hole that is Nikola Tesla; inventor of radio, AC current distribution, remote controlled vehicles, and the DEATH RAY (actually Tesla called it the “Peace Ray” but that didn’t catch on). There’s a bit of controversy about whether it actually existed, most sane people think not, most nut bags with an internet connection and a basic grasp of HTML think oh-yeah, and a whole lot more (the above image comes from the Virgin Mary’s End-Time Prophecies page – they claim Soviet use of the weapon in Afghanistan). For a more lucid account of the technology you could read this wiki article (from the metafictional narrative Against the Day). Here they recount a story linking Tesla’s Death Ray to a 1908 explosion in Siberia that destroyed five hundred thousand square acres of land – alternatively, this destruction could be attributed to a meteor impact.

But it all gets slightly more believable when you see pictures of Tesla’s tower at Wardenclyffee Laboratory (below – more images here), or watch the informative video from Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

The effects you get from even a small Tesla Coil are impressive (photo from David Rieben).

I think I want one. And not for any ‘death ray’ purposes, although there is this one guy who keeps dumping his rubbish in my front yard…