Lethal Energy Beams

The "Death Ray" Is No Longer Science Fiction

Last March Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, lectured at Assumption College, Worcester, Mass. Long before that, it had become known that the Air Force was interested in developing super-power light beams to divert or destroy satellites in flight, or to explode at a great height incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM's). LeMay spoke of these new lethal armaments as "beam-directed energy weapons." He did not elaborate.

The so-called "death rays" have had a long history in fact and fiction. They became an actuality in the 1890's when the great Nikola Tesla, in his historic high-frequency experiments in Colorado, used electric energy beams — without wires — over distances of several miles. He was the first to transmit electric power — wirelessly — over appreciable distances. In his War of the Worlds (1898), H. G. Wells had his earth-invading Martians use a lethal heat ray to keep human armies at bay. Hardly any science-fiction author could do without his pet death ray after the early 20's. These lethal rays were usually electric, such as "condensed lightning," à la Buck Rogers' ray guns, and many others.

The writer, in his article "Warfare of the Future," in The Electrical Experimenter for November 1915, was probably the first to speak of an atom ray. Here is a verbatim quote, 30 years before the actual atom bomb:

Suppose that by that time our scientists have solved the puzzle of the atom and have succeeded in liberating its prodigious forces. Imagine that at that time one atom can be disintegrated at will, instantly into another, what will happen? The results will simply be overwhelmingly astounding and almost incomprehensible to our present mind.

Within a few hours the first atomic gun, popularly known as the "Radium Destroyer," has crossed the enemy's frontier.

A solid green "Radium-K" emanation ray bursts from the top of the Destroyer and hits the concreted steel trench. Our front cover gives but a faint idea of what happens.

Within five minutes the entire city (of 300,000 souls), houses, churches, bridges, parks and everything else have gone up in a titanic vapor cloud; only a vast crater in the ground where the thriving city once stood, remains.

Prophetic fiction has a long record of metamorphosing into actualities in shorter and shorter time intervals. Thus, in the spring of 1961, Raytheon disclosed its new Amplitron tube, less than 6 inches in diameter, that produces over 1,000 kilowatts of radio-frequency power beams.*

In 1953, Sidney I. Brody, Commander (MC) US Navy, reported that "present-day Radar beams of a million watts or over become dangerous. . . . Rabbits exposed to a 3,000-watt field for 75 seconds were killed." †

As far back as the early '50's, the great power of radar beams was demonstrated:

A spectacular illustration of the power output of radar equipment was conducted by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. Dry steel wool in the radar beam was ignited at a distance of 100 feet. At 70 feet an explosion was produced by aluminum chips in a gasoline-vapor-air mixture. Photoflash bulbs were fired at a distance of 323 feet. At 330 feet, audible and visible sparking was apparent when metallic chips were shaken in a paper bag. With high-power radar, these and other spectacular effects can be duplicated at even greater distances. §

Let us now investigate the most modern "beam-directed energy weapons" hinted at by General LeMay. It is known that both Americans and Russians are working feverishly on these new weapons, which may well prove to become our only effective future countermeasure to the ICBM's. Recently, Khrushchev even brashly boasted of a "fantastic new weapon." This probably will turn out to be General LeMay's "beam-directed energy weapon," or something very closely related to it.

Air Force and other technicians have recently experimented with the fabulous Maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and Laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). A recent breakthrough in both can turn radio into light energy (or power), or light into radio energy.

In other experiments, a light (Laser) beam cut a steel razor blade in two. Last March, Raytheon scientists burned holes through stainless-steel sheets and burst a balloon 10 feet beyond. The Laser action lasted only 1/2,000 second. But that is only a micro-beginning. Because Laser beams are non-spreading and "tight," it became possible last May to project a series of beams onto the moon with comparatively small energy (2,000 Joules). This was comparable to the power of a 2,000,000 watt lamp.

Moreover, the "tight" Laser beam spreads very little during its 236,000 mile trip, only about 1,000 miles on the surface of the moon. With ordinary light the beam would have spread over 25,000 miles!

Because the coherent Laser beam packs a tremendous amount of energy into a very small diameter, it delivers a vast concentrated power, exactly where you want it. It is as if you had a soda straw thousands of miles long, through which you pumped a vast amount of energy at the speed of light. Furthermore, you would lose very little power over the whole distance. Militarily it is an ideal weapon. Once it is fully developed, we can scrap our comparatively slow-moving — 17,000 miles an hour — ICBM's, our Nikes and other present-day defense gear.

Laser- or Maser-beam weapons move with the speed of light — 186,000 miles a second. When perfected, a Laser or Maser battery will make short shrift of incoming enemy ICBM's, which are 40,000 times slower than Laser or Maser beams. Laser or Maser batteries will locate the enemy missiles 600 to 800 miles up by radar, and explode the warheads in the vacuum of space, far above the earth's atmosphere. Damage to the defender will be minimal — even the fallout will probably be disseminated into new Van Allen belts, hundreds of miles above our vital — and vulnerable — atmosphere.

- H. G.

* "Radio Power," RADIO-ELECTRONICS, July 1961.
† "Lethal Radio Waves," RADIO-ELECTRONICS, August 1959.
§ "Radar Hazards," RADIO-ELECTRONICS, August 1953.