# 1920s-style death ray? What?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 3, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277 "2003-09-03T05:07:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277/1 "2003-09-03T05:07:58Z")

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I hate not getting references, and it seems that you young’uns are beating me to the game.

I’ve noticed that people around the SDMB are referring to 1920s-style death rays. (As opposed to 1940s-style death rays (Now with Plutonium)?) I don’t understand it, and I would like a clarification.

I’m feeling like Og now: Old and slow. Excuse me while I write some 4004 assembly.

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277/2 "2003-09-03T05:17:03Z")

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There was a thread, that made thread spotting in General Questions about some sort of weapon and someone replied with something like

Oh 1920’s-style death rays

and then multiposted about four times.

This is where the current trend started.

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**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277/3 "2003-09-03T05:17:35Z")

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Go to GQ and look for [Scalar Weapons](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202225).

We got a little enthusiastic. 😃

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**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277/4 "2003-09-03T05:30:01Z")

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“A little enthusiastic”. Yup. And the sun is warm. 😉

**Derleth** , brace yourself – you’ll discover that the death rays have miscegenated with pie and burning dogs into forms too dreadful to contemplate. 😃

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1920s-style-death-ray-what/199277/5 "2003-09-04T06:02:14Z")

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**Eddy** : I’m used to miscegenations from beyond history that wait until the stars are right.

I’ll be careful.

And I was going to click into that thread. It dovetails nicely with a conversation a paranoid delusional and I had once.