Are scalar weapons for real?

[SkyBum]

New Information Just In!

"Russia has a Death Ray Gun..."

Could they have been developing Death Ray's during the 1920's?

"Armour has no effect..."

Could be very similar technology to our technology of the period.

"More frightening than the mind of man has ever imagined"

But we've imagined so much since the 1920's.

"RUSSIA'S DEATH RAY WEAPON..."

Oh GOD! It's true. They DO have it!

"IT COULD SEND CONSECRATED BEAMS OF PARTICLES THROUGH FREE AIR"

Consecrated? WTF?

"The amazing Bayside Prophecies..."

Oh no, here we go again...

[/]"Directives from Heaven..."[/i]

Oh, lunatics again. Nevermind.

[SkyBum]

And another breaking story.

US: Saddam has acquired intergalactic death ray

Controversial “Star Wars” defense shield put on fast track

WASHINGTON — The President announced today that Saddam Hussein has acquired a gigantic death ray which is currently in low orbit around the Earth. A videotape released by Hussein last week appears to have been broadcast from space, possibly from a rogue Iraqi space station.

“If you thought that Saddam was scary before, you haven’t seen anything yet,” the President said at the start of a national address. “Check this out… Saddam Hussein has recently acquired a death ray, and it’s pointed right at us, right now.”

“Saddam could destroy the entire planet in a matter of seconds. But it is important to not panic, to keep going to work, and to continue to shop as usual,” urged the President.

[Gadfly]

Ah, they're 1920's style "Death Rays".

..God, the acoustics here are horrible.

[Tuckerfan]

Actually, the Russians have cancelled their death ray plans. Of course, speculation exists that they might have changed their minds.

[MonkeyMule]

Doc there are several places that sell deathrays basted on the 1920's technology. Sadly, you must first prove your loyality to an approved evil overload, and then join the henchmen union before I can tell you. Can't just let ANYBODY know where our wharehouses are, next thing you know the FBI, JLA and other doo gooders would come in and ruin all the fun

[DocCathode]

Originally posted by MonkeyMule
Doc there are several places that sell deathrays basted on the 1920's technology. Sadly, you must first prove your loyality to an approved evil overload,

I am not evil.

Sometimes, I can become overzealous in my pursuit of knowledge.

I must hide my work from a public that would not understand.

But, I work for good. My efforts and enquiries are for the betterment of humanity.

Greece

Rome

The Ottoman

Great Britain

No empire is forever. Without the vision and will of the emperor, the kingdom is sundered.

Attila

Ghengis Khan

Hitler

Tyranny lasts only until the oppressed become angry enough and desperate enough to rise up and end the tyrant.

Pythagoras

Archimedes

LaVoisier

Kelvin

Franklin

Tesla

Here are the real legacies. An average highschool student can tell you Pythagoras' Theorem. Not many people can tell you who reigned when Pythagoras made his discovery.

[MonkeyMule]

Originally posted by DocCathode
I am not evil.

This is not going to help you get a hold of a 1920s style death ray.

Sometimes, I can become overzealous in my pursuit of knowledge.

As all Evil Henchmen must be. You are looking for a position in upper management with that attitude

I must hide my work from a public that would not understand.

Again ... upper management. A true #2 is obsessed with his leaders goal, but has a suitable side interest. They must all so fear the people. as well as hate them. however they Must NOT do the following:

But, I work for good. My efforts and enquiries are for the betterment of humanity.

Good guys are the enemy. They are the ones that banned death rays in the 1950s. Law and order is the enemy, never forget that.

Here are the real legacies. An average high school student can tell you Pythagoras' Theorem. Not many people can tell you who reigned when Pythagoras made his discovery.

Only because their leaders are weak. The others you listed, Attila the Hun, Gahangis Khan, Alexander the great, these were the overlords of history, imagine what they could have done with 1920s style death rays.

[Michael Ellis]

Ah, they're 1920's style "Death Rays".

[DocCathode]

I want to make this very clear-

I hench for no one!

I am a Mad Scientist.

I might collaborate with anothe scientist on a project.

I may join councils and committees as and equal member.

Put on a uniform and become a nameless, faceless drone for another? Never!

Keep my colorful psuedonym, yet become the lackey of a megalomaniac with a ridiculous plan and no grasp of strategy or how to effectively manage employees?

No! Nein! Nyet!

Did Nemo hench?

Did Frankenstein?

Did Verne?

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally posted by DocCathode
[b]I want to make this very clear-



No! Nein! Nyet!

Did Nemo hench?

Did Frankenstein?

Did Verne?

Actually, DocCathode, when Doctor Victor Frankenstein was an Evil Grad Student, he did hench. It was a part-time job, & better than delivering pizzas.

[MonkeyMule]

Henching is really the only way to move up the ladder to get access to all the labs and equipment that you need to be a true Mad Scientist, or evil genuis.

I really think you should look in to it. Think about it, after a few short years you'll be up to your armpits in 1920's style death rays

[Governor Quinn]

Several more comments to make:

1) Electro has an outlet store on W.28th in NYC, or at least they did a month ago.

2) While it may help a little to know what you mean by "repeat-action", Electro has made multi-shot death rays since 1927, North American and Rochester also have multi-shot as an option, and the Bowman, Tucker, and Barris, Carlin, & Barris I've mentioned before all can be used repeatedly before reloading.

3) Only 18% of all death ray buyers are either evil overlords or mad scientists. However, that number goes up to 70% of all users of 1920's-style death rays.

[MonkeyMule]

But why would anyone want to use anything BUT a 1920's style death ray?

[Governor Quinn]

Originally posted by MonkeyMule
But why would anyone want to use anything BUT a 1920's style death ray?

There are several reasons why.

1) Quite a few of the 1920's death rays had bad recoils. You'd end up flying backwards around 5 or 6 feet every tme you fired one.

2) Most of the 1920's death rays (Electro death rays, which have been on the market since 1913, are the only major exception) were difficult to power, as they didn't work on either batteries or AC/DC (no Bon Scott jokes, please).

3) Very few of the early death rays were portable. You usually needed a room, making them inconvient in many cases.

4) There's an extreme risk of electricution with 1920's death rays if they get wet.

5) Because of the multiple (and often short-lived) companied that were the norm in that era, the parts are not standardized, making them hard to repair.

[DrFidelius]

I had a link to a web ring for collectors of 1920's style death rays, including tips on restoring an Arbogast Magnetrotron using parts from a Ryobi weed-eater, but I seem to have lost it.

Perhaps if you Google on "Death Ray Collectors" you could find it.

[The Great Unwashed]

Originally posted by VernWinterbottom
Poor Ray got left out there.

A 1920s-style death ray is a death ray made in the style of a death ray made between 1920 and 1929. Generally Art Deco in design.

Er, nope, I was imagining a ray-gun that delivered a "1920s-style death", hence my question.

[Zebra]

[Zebra's Grandfather]
When I was a boy, we didn't have any sort of fancy death rays. NO! WE had to shoot people with guns. And WE LIKED IT!
[/Zebra's Grandfather]

[Zebra's Dad]
You'll get my death ray when you pry it from my cold dead fingers!
[/Zebra's Dad]

[MonkeyMule]

Originally posted by The Great Unwashed
Er, nope, I was imagining a ray-gun that delivered a "1920s-style death", hence my question.

Quit ruining our shtick with your perfect grammer! :wally

[heresiarch]

Originally posted by DocCathode
Sadly, Edison Scientific is closed.

Were you perhaps thinking of Edmund Scientific? They still exist, online at least, and are ready to equip your overzealous (but non-evil) quest for knowledge.

The 1920's style death rays are , apparently, out of stock.

[t-keela]

Could one of you guys send me or better yet, post a set of blueprints and specs. please?

I need to construct me one of those tin-foil hats I've heard so much about.

I'd give y'all my address but I'm afraid they would get it.

[pqgenie]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the classic 1958-style death ray, the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Sleek lines, fuel efficient... unfortunately the detonator was stolen by a pesky rabbit, and the research grant funds dried up.

(Thanks to http://www.gargaro.com/marvin.html for help with the spelling... and props to (zhlf210 for starting a great thread!)

[frixxxx]

Originally posted by t-keela
Could one of you guys send me or better yet, post a set of blueprints and specs. please?

I'd give y'all my address but I'm afraid they would get it.

In regards to the 1920's style "Death Ray" the hat is optional under package C only. However, the tin-foil hat instructions are as follows:

1. Go to the store and purchase one roll duct tape and one small roll of "Reynolds Wrap®"
Note: Generic brands of tin-foil are not acceptable. Duct tape can be any make or style.
2. Upon returning home, grab flashlight and go into closet for privacy.
3. Use tape measure to determine circumference of head.
4. Tear three sheets at double the above length.
5. Fold sheets in half Shiny side up (double protection).
6. Using duct tape as a fastener, mold one sheet to the crown, tape the other two sheets to each side.
Note: Remember that more krinkles in tin-foil provide extra protection and deflective properties.
7. Form brim to reflect rays up and away from head.
8. Apply second layer of duct tape for extra strength.
9. Repeat instructions for spare hat.

That should cover it, er I mean, provide protection.

[Capt B. Phart]

Originally posted by The Great Unwashed
Er, nope, I was imagining a ray-gun that delivered a "1920s-style death", hence my question.

If fact, when I pull the trigger on my Pheaton-Sprule "Magestic IV" disnitigrater the victim goes black and white (and slightly jerky), a large car filled with snappily-dressed mobsters drivers past (wise-cracking silently) and fills him fulla lead

Makes a real headache for forensics

[Capt B. Phart]

Sometimes they just drive past instead

[The Great Unwashed]

Right, and is that when they all die of TB?

[Capt B. Phart]

Cholera actually, (TB was the Magestic III)

[Severian]

I was hoping Dogface would tell us what he thinks.

[Baggins111]

Looks like I picked the wrong week for giving up 1920's style death rays.

[Governor Quinn]

Originally posted by pqgenie
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the classic 1958-style death ray, the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

It actually was manufactored from 1947 to 1951, and the Illudium Death-Ray Corporation was out of business by 1958.

Not to mention that it's the least effective death ray in history, and that's counting the early ones.

[Fatwater Fewl]

Originally posted by MonkeyMule
an approved evil overload

Ah, this is in reference to the special heavy-duty capacitors which made the 1920's style "Death Rays" the weapon of choice amongst evil geniuses and their henching minions everywhere.

[DrFidelius]

A note to would-be fanciers of 1920's style death rays:

Many of the offers on Ebay are indeed "1920's style" but they are the cheap copies imported from Fernando Poo during the '60s and '70s. They are easy to spot if the death ray is in hand (the crystal resonation rods are glass in the copies rather than quartz, and the transmogrifier insulators are not made of Bakelite or amber) but it is extremely difficult to determine veracity online.

Beware of anyone who sems to have a large suppy of these items for sale, unless they can show that they were one of Doc Savage's antagonists.

[Gadfly]

Ah, they're 1920's style "Death Rays"...

Death Rays that have made Threadspotting.

[Sunspace]

1920's style Death Rays, you say?

Eeeeeexcellent.

[Trigonal Planar]

By heavy-duty capacitors you must be referring to flux capacitors, right? A well-built flux capacitor will power a 1920s style death ray like nobody's business.

[NicePete]

NO WAY! Ray is dead? Roast Beef and Pat will be so bummed. And Phillippe will weep for days.

Dibs on his thong!

[Horseflesh]

Originally posted by Governor Quinn
Not to mention that it's the least effective death ray in history, and that's counting the early ones.

Au contraire, guv'nuh. They were the most effective death rays ever mass produced, except we kept putting the silly things in reverse.

Now, the death rays that the Japanese Army used to fight Godzilla; those were ineffective. Probably because they were relics from the 1920s.

[Michael Ellis]

I don't know what you're all arguing about, but IMO the best death ray ever made was the double-shot Stratton-Chesterfield M1924B. It's never let me down, and I use it a lot in my work.

[Cervaise]

Originally posted by pqgenie
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the classic 1958-style death ray, the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

And I'm surprised this ridiculous thing is still in GQ.

[t-keela]

It's not...I saw M.Ellis in pit thread somewhere (hunting Nanookie I think he was) and the fallout spread that far it had.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...84#post3863784

M/E hat specs need do you?

[Michael Ellis]

Originally posted by t-keela
M/E hat specs need do you?

Is that English?

[SkyBum]

This thread's been up for quite awhile
And some may think it's plain senile
This Death Ray thread done 20's style
Should not be something you revile

We've had a lot of things to say
About this awesome beam array
Perhaps to some of your dismay
It made Threadspotting just today

You may have thought, this thread's a farce
This Death Ray came from someone's 'arse
It's true that good cite's can be sparse
But it's all here for you to parse

You claim our Death Ray's not for real
You say our story's too piecemeal
You swear they're plastic, not of steel
Tonight, our claims, I'm here to seal

This story started long ago
Way back before the Art Deco
Our man he was a slight weirdo
But damn his toys were quite nouveau

He was a genius with a spark
He did such strange things with an arc
Some will say he was a lark
And yet indeed, he left his mark

He pioneered magnetic field
He helped inventors get some yield
Before some knobs one day he kneeled
A sparking coil, he revealed

So many patents, he did file
It took a toll on his lifestyle
He worked so hard he'd barely smile
Inventions, patents, he had a pile

One day men came, some men in black
As he sat down to have a snack
They said it best that he should pack
Or that his head they just might crack

Now where they took him we don't know
It may have been deep down below
They said they needed some gizmo
That could destroy without ammo

Here the details may grow thin
But what I say is not a spin
His greatest work he did begin
It started with a piece of tin

We don't know all of what transpired
Or what components he required
But in the end, he had hardwired
That Death Ray which these men desired

It took him years, this we know
But then his toil began to show
He'd found the perfect volt outflow
A beam of light began to show

Pull the trigger, right away
A beam of light, there would play
Where it lit there'd be a fray
And man or beast it would sautee

Now when it all was said and done
Our country had a fearful gun
A sturdy man could not outrun
This thing would make us number one

He told them it was time to pay
They said come back another day
And here our man was led astray
For they had stolen his Death Ray

They told him not a word to say
They made him promise to obey
They took him to the first highway
And left him there to his dismay

Now that such a time had passed
His lifelong work had been surpassed
His fortune lost, that he'd amassed
Amongst his peers he'd been outcast

He tried his best to start anew
So many things he thought he'd do
Wardenclyffe, he did eschew
But in the end he just withdrew

Now we come to '43
Quite a bit more elderly
His heart it gave a final plea
Nikola Tesla, ceased to be

It's quite a story, that I've told
But don't discount it 'cause it's old
There's more to this still to unfold
Don't take my word, its been foretold

We Death Ray fan's have been at work
Nikola's dream we did not shirk
Our Death Ray guns are just a perk
At that I'll ask you not to smirk

Now here is what I must extol
We're oh so close to hit our goal
With X-ray tubes we're on a roll
We'll soon unveil our first wormhole

It's then that we'll have all we need
Unlimited energy, at high speed
For all this oil we'll have no need
On that we all can be agreed

We're near to tapping Zero Point
And he who does it, we'll anoint
A hero, him we will appoint
For now, this story's reached endpoint....

....and I shall smoke another joint

SAM I AM!

- Mike Showell - 8/19/03 for the SDMB

[eburacum45]

There are, unfortunately, no known authentic examples of this 1898 death ray available on the open market;
please be aware that inferior 1920's style replicas are comparatively commonplace.

[Desmostylus]

Originally posted by Michael Ellis
Is that English?

Yoda no good English speak. Death ray Yoda need not. Force Yoda have.

[Max Carnage]

Aw pooh, I submitted this thread to tubadiva for Threadspotting and someone else got credit! I'm so mad! I wish I had...some kind of...killing...laser...gun..thingie of some sort!

[Ike Witt]

While we have all seen plenty of pictures of these gentle, functional and stylish death rays from the 1920's, how did they work? Are there any photos of a 1920's hunter standing next to an elephant with a VW sized hole blown through it?

Help me picture what they (scalar weapons) looked when fired. Remember that show Tek War? It starred BJ without the bear, and he had a funky 2020's style non-leathal death ray(?). How about the movie Minority Report? Was the wind up gun used in the car factory fight, also a 2020's non-leathal death ray, a scalar weapon?

[Senior Chief]

Scalar weapons exist. I have seen them. When I was recalled following 9/11, I got to ride in one of the silent black helicopters. they exist too. We used a scalar weapon to turn three grazing cows inside-out and put three carefully spaced burn marks next to them in the farmer's field.

[criminalcatalog]

It was kinda like "death rays", if you replace "death" with "hearty", and "rays" with "dumplings"......

[Governor Quinn]

Originally posted by Horseflesh
Au contraire, guv'nuh. They were the most effective death rays ever mass produced, except we kept putting the silly things in reverse.

I take it, then, that you've never heard of the Hammerstein Tests, or read the reports of Dr. Carlin in 1956 and Professor Gumby in 1970, or read the March 1973 "Consumer Reports", all of which shows that the Illudium Q-36 had very poor range, a tendency to misfire, broke easily, and was next to impossible to reload.

Of course, you might be confusing it either with the 1951 Electro or the 1962 Barris, Carlin, & Barris (both of which closely resemble the Illudium Q-36), or you mean the Illudium Q-37, which actually was a great death ray.

[eunoia]

Originally posted by Horseflesh
...Au contraire, guv'nuh. They were the most effective death rays ever mass produced, except we kept putting the silly things in reverse.
...

You obviously know what you're talking about, but this is General Questions, you should be clearer: The most effective ever mass produced sure, but what no one has yet mentioned is the major problems 1920's style "Death Rays" had with energy dissipated as sound waves. Inefficient sure, but the distinctive "bubblllnnzzzzrrrrrrrrtttt" sound of these are the main reason for their continuing popularity and general desirability.

[tramp]

I believe the first literary mention of a 1920's style death ray came in Stenbeck's classic "The Grapes of Wrath".