# 1920' style death ray **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226 "2004-05-20T18:44:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/21 "2004-05-21T14:48:19Z")
By the way, here is an example of the [1920’s Style Death Ray in use.](http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20040520.html) ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/22 "2004-05-21T14:49:23Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Ah, but you haven’t heard [Paul Harvey][The Rest of The Story](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=247475&highlight=deaf+rays)[PH]: Oh, my. I just snorted coffee out of my nose when I scanned the thread. (Painful, that.) That’s one of the best ever. RR ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/23 "2004-05-22T11:23:35Z")
> [@Algernon](#): > > In my memory, this phrase spread the furthest and fastest of any. An uncontrolled wildfire of humor. Really, **Algernon**? And just who are all _your_ base belong to? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/24 "2004-05-22T14:50:12Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > The principle commercial usage of 1920’s Style Death Rays is to burn your dog. 🙂 No. When hit by death rays, dogs (especially small ones) tend to explode more often than they burn. Ohh, **BJMoose** : One can operate death ray just fine without a tin-foil hat. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/25 "2004-05-22T14:51:54Z")
I loathe typos. There either should be an “a” between “operate” and “death”, or a “s” at the end of “ray”. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/26 "2004-05-22T15:31:14Z")
After some discussion of the subject in the original thread, I started a thread asking for recipes for a drink named 1920’s style death ray, but I can’t seem to find it. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/27 "2004-05-22T15:50:48Z")
> [@Dignan](#): > > OH! A 1920’_s_ style death ray. I thought this thread would have a question about a 1,920 foot style of death ray. To my knowledge, no such thing exists. Not these days, but recent excavations at Mucho Pizzu have yielded evidence of a crude weapon measuring just over 585 meters in length. Apparently it was designed during the times of the Spanish Conquest before the local South American tribes were wiped out. The idea was to take a recently dead corpse killed by smallpox and lob it at enemies from other tribes, ensuring their demise. In order to shield the operators from harm, the corpse was sealed in a metal casing which broke apart on impact. When the sun’s rays glinted of this projectile, it probably would have left a streak across the retinae of the eyes. The discovery may go a long way in explaining references in the oral history of nearby ancient tribes to there peril at the receiving end of a “Ray of Death” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/28 "2004-05-22T16:19:58Z")
That first page of the post was hilarious. I can’t belive I missed that entire thread. It was a mere year ago, too. It was very hard to contain my guffaws in the library. The other patrons would not have liked my laughing. What a wonderful board. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/29 "2004-05-22T16:29:10Z")
> [@scotandrsn](#): > > Not these days, but recent excavations at Mucho Pizzu have yielded evidence of a crude weapon measuring just over 585 meters in length. Apparently it was designed during the times of the Spanish Conquest before the local South American tribes were wiped out. > > The idea was to take a recently dead corpse killed by smallpox and lob it at enemies from other tribes, ensuring their demise. In order to shield the operators from harm, the corpse was sealed in a metal casing which broke apart on impact. What kind of revisionist history have you been reading? The codexes make it clear that the death rays of Machu Pichu and Teoticuan were designed to focus “The consecrated flames of Huitzlipochtli”. There are also references (sadly they have been partially destroyed) to a defense by the followers of Tezcatlipoca, a trickster god of the night also known as the Smoky Mirror. ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/30 "2004-05-22T16:47:54Z")
From Wikipedia’s Nikolai Tesla entry: > [@](#): > > At the time of his death, Tesla had been working on some form of teleforce weapon, or Death ray, the secrets of which he had offered to the United States War Department on the morning of January 5. It appears that his proposed death ray was related to his research into ball lightning and plasma. He was found dead 3 days later and, after the FBI was contacted by the War Department, his papers were declared to be top secret. And under “Teleforce”: > [@](#): > > Teleforce refers to Nikola Tesla’s charged particle beam projector, first mentioned in the New York Sun, July 10, 1934. As can be seen from Tesla’s words written in a letter to J. P. Morgan, Jr., the Teleforce invention was primarily intended to be used as an instrument of national defense akin to an invisible “Chinese Wall of Defense”. Tesla stated that nations, when detecting invading armies, could destroy their opponent’s military units and reduce incoming aerial craft as far as 200 to 250 miles away. It is not known whether Tesla ever built a model of the Teleforce system, though in 1937, Tesla remarked, “But it is not an experiment … I have built, demonstrated, and used it. Only a little time will pass before I can give it to the world.” Ok so its technically a “1930’s style force beam”, but we’re not splitting hairs right? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/31 "2004-05-22T17:00:23Z")
> [@Meta-Gumble](#): > > Ok so its technically a “1930’s style force beam”, but we’re not splitting hairs right? Not without a really good crenelated focusing array. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/32 "2004-05-22T17:04:43Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > What kind of revisionist history have you been reading? > > The codexes make it clear that the death rays of Machu Pichu and Teoticuan were designed to focus “The consecrated flames of Huitzlipochtli”. There are also references (sadly they have been partially destroyed) to a defense by the followers of Tezcatlipoca, a trickster god of the night also known as the Smoky Mirror. The only thing that’s partially destroyed is your grasp of reality, buddy. The chemical and radiation tests performed by Geminsky in the 1960s (!!!) revealed that the records speaking of the “Smoky Mirror” defense were frauds of Shroud-Of-Turin-like dimensions (See his article “Smoky Bared”, in the June, 1964 volume of the Journal of Scalar Weapons Research. The “Death Rays” Studies department of your local University should have a reprint copy on hand.) While there is some evidence that the Tezcatlipocans staved off attacks with _threats_ (and I can not emphasize threats strongly enough) of a “Smoky Mirror”, nothing concrete was turned up in the famous Morales expedition to the area, leading Geminsky to investigate what were up till then only rumours that the records detailing such a defense were cooked up in the late 19th century by disgruntled South Americans of native descent. Meanwhile, the description in the codexes of the “consecrated fires of Huitzilopochtli” are well-known to have been a diversion to conceal the true nature of the weapon. The idea was to get the enemy to focus so much of the village’s energy on applying flame-resistant resin to the huts, that the medicinal herbs withered and died on the vine, thereby increasing the death toll. It’s all outlined in the classic tome, The Lukewarm War: Examining the Arms Race of Ancient South America. Before you post again, you might wish to be sure you;ve kept up with youre reading. (And of course the REAL reason I’m posting is becuase I forgot to include my sig in the last one) ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/33 "2004-05-22T17:07:31Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > Ohh, **BJMoose** : One can operate death ray just fine without a tin-foil hat. Not if pointed at you. I suppose I can’t make fun of your typos if you’ve already pointed them out though… ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/34 "2004-05-22T17:08:57Z")
…which…didn’t show up again… ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/35 "2004-05-22T17:12:10Z")
**scotandrsn** That is fantastic research, on your part, to have discovered the early technological breakthroughs about such weapons. I was not able to find references dating that far back. However, here is a website which suggests that Pierre and Marie Curie were conducting experiments in the 1890’s concerning the “Ray de Mort”. [http://www.geocities.com/internet\_web\_surfer\_dude/raydemort.htm](http://www.geocities.com/internet_web_surfer_dude/raydemort.htm) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/36 "2004-05-22T17:39:04Z")
Geminsky? Geminksy’s work has been thoroughly debunked. One of his graduate assistants discovered numerous errors in Geminsky’s papers. His research revealed that Geminsky had intentionally falsified his findings in order to push his agenda of Aryan superiority-rather than admit the accomplishments of the MesoAmerican people’s, Geminsky claimed that their great weapon was just the use of a disease brought by Europeans. I refer you to the work of Esteban DelSol, especially his documentary series Cities Of Gold. No Smoky Mirror has been found for a good reason. The priests of Tezcatlipoca ordered them destroyed so that no one else could have them. In one case, a group of Conquistadors sent an emisary offering to spare the temple and worshippers if they would give up the mirror and its secrets. A few minutes after the emissary entered the temple, two men came out bearing a large object covered by a black cloth. This was indeed one of the a Smoky Mirrors. It had been shattered and the emissary had been stabbed to death with the shards. “You say there are no gods but your gods. You say that we must give up our ways and live by your ways. You ask us for the Smoky Mirror. We will not give up our gods. We will not give up our ways. You may kill us all. But, you will never have the Smoky Mirror.” ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/37 "2004-05-22T22:31:09Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > “You say there are no gods but your gods. You say that we must give up our ways and live by your ways. You ask us for the Smoky Mirror. We will not give up our gods. We will not give up our ways. You may kill us all. But, you will never have the Smoky Mirror.” Ha! Ha! And again, I say, Ha! You poor soul, you’re still reading the “Hoboken Translation” of the Scrolls of Tlaloxinatl, which themselves were shown to be forgeries by a mischevous post-doc who has so far lacked the gumption to step forward and name himself. The team of translators applied a rather generic transliteration of this passage as an ass-covering measure, given that they had burned through most of their grant money by the time they had gotten to this portion of the text. A more accurate reading would have been: “Smoky Mirror? We don’t need no Smoky Mirror! We don’t got to show you no stinking Smoky Mirror!” This obvious parody of a famous quote from John Huston’s film, “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” either sailed right over the heads of the translators, or gave the game away so badly they had no choice but to try and hush the whole thing up before their reputations were destroyed. The Amazing Randi wrote a whole article about the fraud. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/38 "2004-05-22T22:54:07Z")
True, but only half the story. I refer you to Randi’s second article on the matter. The scrolls were revealed to be forgeries. But during maintenance following a silverfish infestation, photographic prints of the actual scrolls were discovered. The original scrolls appear to be authentic. Their current whereabouts are unknown. The scrolls currently in the library are indeed a clumsy and error-ridden forgery. But, the original scrolls were authentic. I refer you to the Weehauken Translation. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/39 "2004-05-22T23:20:32Z")
**Doc** , I really don’t know why you’re wasting your time on this, since it’s obvious that **scotandrsn** is using sources which are not only wrong, but completely bent. (Of course, **scotandrsn** could be making this all up in a desperate attempt to test out his new sig, not realizing that the auto feature [has been turned off.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=4) And if he _isn’t_ making this all up, the fact that he’s missed the announcement which has been pinned to the top of each forum for a couple of days now, shows that his ablility to research thouroughly is questionable at best. Just like my spelling.) BTW, **Doc** have you seen the latest translations of what are being called “the Orff Papers”? It seems that C. Orff found a long forgotten manuscript in an Irish monastary describing what could only be a death ray. Exact dating of the manuscript hasn’t been completed as of yet, but it appears to have been written in the last decade of the 1200’s. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226/40 "2004-05-23T14:24:25Z")
Updating that which was in the original thread: The first two volumes of Golden’s “History of Death Rays” is availible in bookstores. Servo’s “A Study Into The Death Ray: 1893-2004” will be out in a few months. The 47th Annual Death-Ray Collectors’ Convention will be from June 24th-31st, at the Javits Convention Center in NYC. Tickets are still availible. BTW, **Tuckerfan** : Having looked through the files of Electro, I can safely say that Henry Miller never was employed by that company. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920-style-death-ray/246226.md?page=3)