Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Laboratory, circa 1900.
Ever since 2nd century reports of Archimedes using a heat ray to destroy ships at the Siege of Syracuse, the idea of a massive, controlled force raining down death and destruction has compelled science fiction authors. HG Wells’ Martians wreaked havoc with their heat rays, and the death ray became a staple for ‘B’ movie and serial villains such as Fu Manchu and Ming the Merciless.
It's perhaps surprising, then to discover that from the 1920s through to the 1950s, the death ray, in various forms, was the Holy Grail of weapons development. Spurred by the increased threat of air power following World War I, many claimed to have developed such a weapon, but none managed to prove it.
From Nikola Tesla’s ‘teleforce’ charged particle beam device, to Harry Grindell Matthews’ controversial death ray, some of the finest scientific minds on the planet toiled to develop the ultimate weapon. No million-killing device was developed, but an awful lot of small creatures died in the process.
Death Ray Time Line
1899: Nikola Tesla’s experiments in Colorado Springs cause the local electric company’s generator to cease functioning.
1907: In a letter to The New York Times, Tesla claims that he has built a device capable of “…projecting wave energy to any particular region of the globe.”
1908: On June 30, an explosion flattens 500,000 acres of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Siberia. One theory posits that this was caused by Tesla’s experiments.
Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his Death Ray.
1924: May 20, The New York Times reports that Harry Grindell Matthews, has invented a “diabolical ray.”
May 28, The New York Times runs a story claiming that the Russian engineer Grammachikoff has developed an electromagnetic invention to destroy airplanes.
May 29, The New York Times again: “The inventors of a ‘death ray’ multiply every day.” The names of Professor TF Wall of Sheffield University, England, Prior and Raffe, also from England, and Herr Wulle, ‘chief militarist’ of the Reichstag are mentioned.
June 9, Time magazine reports that “Death Ray” Matthews has turned down £1,000 from the British Air Ministry to prove his invention, and fled to France ahead of an injunction from his backers.
September 5, Edwin R Scott, an inventor from San Francisco, claims he was the first to develop a death ray.
1928: On June 3, The New York Times reports that Dr Graichen of the Siemens Halske Electric Company in Berlin has created a death ray capable of destroying human life.
c1930: The US Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground offers a reward to anyone capable of killing a tethered goat with a death ray, and the British Air Ministry offers £1,000 to anyone using a death ray to kill a sheep at 100 yards.
1934: The July 23 issue of Time magazine and September’s Modern Mechanix report that Dr Antonio Longoria of Cleveland, Ohio has invented a death ray that kills rabbits, dogs and cats instantly, turning their blood to water.
Robert Watson-Watt is asked by the British Air Ministry to look into the feasibility of the death ray. They are unable to prove its worth, but the research leads them to the invention of radar.
1935: February, in Liberty magazine, Tesla discredits the physical possibility of a death ray, but claims that his teleforce invention would have the ability to “Destroy anything, men or machines, approaching within a radius of 200 miles.”
August, Modern Mechanix states that French scientist Henri Claudel’s “Rays of Death” will “kill any living thing at a distance of 10 kilometers.”
1936: February, Professor Harry May of England presents Alpha the Robot and a Death Ray Machine at the San Diego Exposition
May 19, The Cornell Daily Sun reports that Henry Fleur of San Francisco, being sued by investors, for failing to deliver his death ray, holds a home demonstration for the judge and jury, and is acquitted after killing a snake, a lizard, and some termites.
1940: February, Popular Science, reports that Dr Longoria had destroyed his death ray “for the good of humanity.”
September, The New York Times reports that Tesla’s teleforce ray is ready, and could be deployed in three months, at a cost of $2,000,000.
1943: January 8, Tesla’s death in New York is reported. Destitute, he was still working on his teleforce weapon – the government seizes his papers, with J Edgar Hoover declaring them top secret.
1946: Dr Albert F Murray reveals that, during the war, he was asked by the British National Defense Research Committee to research the death ray. On December 2, Time magazine reports that he is to continue his work for the US government.
1957: Dr Vladimir Gavreau and his team in France discover the possibilities of infrasonic weapons.
2004: Raytheon is granted an FCC license to demonstrate its Silent Guardian “less-than-lethal directed energy aplication”, aka the Pain Ray.
Death Ray (Luch Smerti), USSR, 1925
Death Ray Movies
The Death Ray, GB, 1924; “documentary” with Harry Grindell Matthews.
Laughing at Danger, USA 1924; with Richard Talmadge.
Death Ray (Luch Smerti), USSR, 1925; with Sergei Komarov.
The Mask of Fu Manchu, USA, 1932; With Boris Karloff.
Murder at Dawn, USA, 1932; with Jack Mulhall.
Chandu the Magician, USA, 1932; with Bela Lugosi.
The Whispering Shadow, USA, 1933; with Bela Lugosi.
The Vanishing Shadow, USA, 1934; serial with Onslow Stevens.
The Phantom Empire, USA, 1935; serial with Gene Autry.
The Lost City, USA, 1935; serial with William ‘Stage’ Boyd.
Murder by Television,USA, 1935; with Bela Lugosi.
The Invisible Ray, USA, 1936; with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi.
Sky Racket (aka Flight into Danger), USA, 1937; with Herman Brix.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, USA 1938; serial with Buster Crabbe.
The Fighting Devil Dogs, USA, 1938; serial with Herman Brix.
Flight to Fame, USA, 1938; with Charlie Farrell.
Adventures of Captain Marvel, USA, 1941; serial with Tom Tyler.
Superman, USA, 1941; animated short with a mad scientist, seemingly based on Tesla.
Spook Louder, USA, 1943; short with The Three Stooges.
The Great Alaskan Mystery, USA, 1944; serial with Milburn Stone.
King of the Rocket Men, USA, 1949; serial with Tristram Coffin.
Dick Barton at Bay, GB, 1950; with Don Stannard.
Atlantis, the Lost Continent, USA, 1961; with Anthony Hall.
The Secret of Dr Mabuse (Die Todesstrahlen des Dr Mabuse), West Germany/France/Italy, 1964; with Peter van Eyck.
The Brides of Fu Manchu, GB, 1968; with Christopher Lee.
Death Ray (Il raggio infernale), Italy, 1967; with Gordon Scott.
Death Ray 2000 (aka TR Sloane of the Secret Service), USA, 1979; with Robert Logan.
Kamikaze, France, 1986; with Michel Galabru.
Tesla and the Bell Boy, USA, 2008; with Laurence Cantor.
Further Reading/Sources
Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World, “Part 1 – Looking Backward; 3. Death Rays to DVDs”; David Hambling. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006.
Airminded: Airpower and British Society, 1908–1941 (mostly). “The Death Ray Men”.Website
The Death Ray: The Secret Life of Harry Grindell Matthews; Jonathan Foster. Website
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