Last night I went to a Mars party at the Griffith Park Observertory. A whole lot of amatuer astrometers brought their telescopes and people could look at Mars.
One individual had built an 11" refracting telescope and mounted it to the roof rack of his 240 Volvo station wagon. The unit was almost as long as the car, and damn if it didn’t look like a 1920’s style death ray mounted on a Volvo.
So my question is did any of the death ray makers mount their units on the top of cars?
Aftermarket kits were available, through Edison Scientific or possibly the J. C. Heisenberg catalog. Most 1920’s style cars were too magnatically active act as a stable base for a death ray.
how often do you see threads spawning their own dot com?
I don’t see many that warrant their own dot com, however, the depth of this thread has brought on the need for the masses to have an avenue of expression beyond the SDMB.
I have enjoyed the other comments that have been sent to me personally.
“World Domination! by 1920’s style Death-Rays”
Not out of design, and not during the 1920’s, when most cars didn’t have a sturdy enough roof. All deathrays you see on the roofs of cars were either 1) specially ordered from the factory, 2) set up using the kits DrFidelius mentions, or 3) installed by the purchasers without using either 1) or 2).
I’d imagine that a 1920’s style death ray mounted on to a car isn’t too good for gas mileage.
If you’ve got a '20s-style death ray mounted on the roof of your car, you’re not using gas. You have these little green pellets that let you run on nothing but water!
This is currently the third longest GQ thread ever (by number of posts). Another two pages will bring it to the all-time number one spot.
Once this thread becomes the longest, we can destroy any competing threads by using some sort of … fearsome … weapon …
What does a 1920s style death ray sound like?
{wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah}
{na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na}
{moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo}
{dwreeeeeekkkoooooooowwwwwwwww}
Ah, they’re 1920’s style death rays.
I’m surprised that Tuckerfan hasn’t responded to this.
Just one of the unique features of Tucker’s automobiles was that the premium deal included a death ray. His design was ingenious. Outwardly, the car would look almost identical. The various components were distributed throughout the car’s body. Beneath the chrome, the grill of a death ray car was made a secret alloy. The “cyclops” third headlight was made with quartz rather than glass. This was actually the focusing lens of the ray. A telescopic, jointed arm enabled the ray to have a very large field of fire.
But, not a single Tucker death ray car was ever made.
{zzzz…crackle…zzzzzz…crackle…}
There were as many different sounds as there were types of 1920’s death ray.
While I don’t know of any website containing audio files, many death ray recordings can easily be found. Rankin Bass, Hanna Barbera and other animation studios frequently used public domain recordings of 1920’s death demonstrations rather than pay a foley artist to create the sound. Though sadly uncredited, many death ray’s can be heard in the sound effects of the following shows-
Flash Gordon(the 70's incarnation with the pink dragon sidekick. The Flash Gordon cartoon series of the 90's has no actual death ray sounds or, indeed, any redeeming feature whatsoever)
Black Star
Spider Man And His Amazing Friends(This caution applies in general, but is especially true of this series. A recording of a death ray may accompany many unrelated actions. Besides being the sound for the weapons of Doctor Doom and Cyberiad, death ray recordings were used to provide sounds for the magic of Modred and other spell casting characters)
Dungeons&Dragons-Here I can identify a specific brand. There are not many trademarked sounds. US courts have judged that a sound must be distinct enough to be trademarked. Harley Davidson has succesfully trademarked the sound of their engines. Whenever the evil Venger fires a mystic bolt, your hearing the unique sound of a Zotti. When the company went bankrupt, the Zottis allowed the sound to pass into public domain. Aldin Zotti told the press "It is a marvellous sound, evoking not only images of technology but of joy and wonder. Our company is gone. To keep such a treasure as this simply so that no one else may have it would be criminal. From this day forward, it belongs to world!".
Thundarr The Barbarian-In a future of sorcery and superscience, nearly every episode includes a bizzare machine. Authentic death ray recordings are heard in this show more than any other.
Sadly, the 80’s saw synthesizers replace many of the traditional sounds. By the time of Thundercats, and Silverhawks real death rays had all but vanished from cartoons.
Well, lemme just get out my … hold on, it’s here somewhere … hmmm, maybe underneath the old pile of “Amazing Stories” (circa 1929) … nope, hold on … ah, there it is! Let me just fire thi—
Maybe it sounds like bling, bling.
Parts do occasionally show up on eBay. So far, I’ve been outbid on them every time. (Damn shame that, can’t afford the car, can’t afford the parts to put one together.)
So you’re all Tuckered out on eBay?
The sounds of 1920s death rays were varied, but they all seemed to smell the same. I occassionally turn mine on, just to help remember the old days when my grandpa first let me use his. It’s ozone and warm bakelite, but what else is in the scent? I can’t quite place it…
Paprika.
Which smells much better than that joke! :smack:
Yup. Has this thing made it two more pages yet? It’s gone beyond silly.