# 1920's Death Rays **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 17, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590 "2009-12-17T03:26:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/1 "2009-12-17T03:26:34Z")
No, seriously. The serious discussion of 1920’s-Style Death Rays. I found what seems to be the [original 1000+ post thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=202225) about the origin of the joke, but I thought there was a thread at some point where people discussed the subject seriously and talked about the 1920s. There are a couple of references in that thread to real people like Harry Grindell-Matthews but it’s mostly all jokes. Was there another thread that wasn’t all jokey or am I hallucinating? Does some Doper have this bookmarked? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/2 "2009-12-17T07:14:51Z")
[There are some answers here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=476443) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/3 "2009-12-17T11:44:30Z")
Thanks, but in fact there is nothing about the 1920s in that thread, and the 20s are what I’m specifically looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/4 "2009-12-17T13:38:31Z")
If it’s the same thread I’m thinking of, it started out as an OP about conspiracy/lunacy theories concerning Tesla. If you do a search on that word you can probably find it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/5 "2009-12-17T21:20:34Z")
Ah, okay. Then maybe this is the answer: [1920s-style Death Rays. No, Really!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=234159) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/6 "2009-12-18T14:13:39Z")
That thread was somewhat helpful, although most of the links no longer work. Wonder whatever happened to that OP? Anyway, it kicked me in the head to search on Grindell Matthews. Although that only turns up two threads, and I’ve found more mentions that than just poking around myself. But one of the threads is [1920s style death rays? HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=287487&highlight=Grindell+Matthews) where some guy posts a long article giving me much of what I need to know. Thanks, guy from the distant past I no longer remember. Oh, and something I’ve wanted to say for a long time. Just a general plea, maybe a reminder that should go into a sticky. Don’t just post a bare link with no information. Give us something that a) makes it searchable on the Dope and b) makes it findable on Google if the links goes dead at a later time. The example I’m looking at in that thread is: > [@](#): > > link > > [http://217.206.205.129/articles/174\_deathray.shtml](http://217.206.205.129/articles/174_deathray.shtml) > article on this guy. 3 pages worth, with photos. Which guy? What site? What article? The link is now dead. That happens all the time. It would be really helpful for people to put the name of the article and site into the link and quote a bit of the text so that we aren’t clicking blindly. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/7 "2009-12-19T02:43:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > T > > Oh, and something I’ve wanted to say for a long time. Just a general plea, maybe a reminder that should go into a sticky. Don’t just post a bare link with no information. Give us something that a) makes it searchable on the Dope and b) makes it findable on Google if the links goes dead at a later time. > > The example I’m looking at in that thread is: > > Which guy? What site? What article? The link is now dead. > > That happens all the time. It would be really helpful for people to put the name of the article and site into the link and quote a bit of the text so that we aren’t clicking blindly. - Preach it, \*Brother!🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-death-rays/521590/8 "2009-12-19T06:18:22Z")
Well, it may be a bit late, but that IP used to belong to Fortean Times, and the guy is no doubt Matthew “Death Ray” Grindell, who is discussed on their new website in these two articles: [http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/195/radar\_and\_the\_death\_ray.html](http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/195/radar_and_the_death_ray.html) [http://www.forteantimes.com/features/profiles/193/grindell\_death\_ray\_matthews.html](http://www.forteantimes.com/features/profiles/193/grindell_death_ray_matthews.html)