Matter Interrupters---trying to invent a weapon for WW-1 era sci fi.

[Daryl J.]

Not a bullet nor a death ray, not a photon torpedo nor antimatter but, instead, a weapon that interferes  the natural function of molecules and atoms at their level.    Matter interrupters cause particles to cease their motion and lose their attractiveness to surrounding similar molecules thereby causing the target to disintegrate.  Instead of having things blown to bits, they literally are blown to dust at the point of impact.   Molecules no longer are chemically nor mechanically bound to their neighbors.   Electrons freeze in their orbits for a moment releasing a sudden exothermic followed by an endothermic 'pulse' adding to destruction in the affected area.     Unable to wipe out massive areas like antimatter or fusion/fission bombs, the weapon behaves much more like a machine gun bullet, only without the bullet.   Rather than flying chunks, there is exceedingly fine dust; rather than sparks from impact, there is a significant superheat/superfreeze pulse. 

Needed componentry includes superconducting chips of meteorite glass,  guide planes to direct the exit of the charge ( similar to a gun's barrel),  & power source, etc.   Versions vary in size, weight, and hitting power with some being light enough to be carried aloft.


Thoughts aren't  complete, but, hopefully,  they are original.

I'm hoping to hang one on the Marconi-equipped Biff Quadratyre for use in Zeppelin or Gotha Busting at night  or the Albatros D.V Parasol Ice Fighter for air to air combat.


Daryl J.

[dragon]

So who is designing this one?  Tesla, Edison, or John Moses Browning?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

What ever you come up with, you know it is going to need a lot of cooling fins to handle the heat generated from vaporizing things.  Perhaps depart from the traditional rings around the barrel or discharge aperture and go with longitudinal fins length-wise along the length of this feature.  No where near as retro as some of the traditional ray gun things but the argument could be made that the linear cooling fins would allow for better air flow and improve the performance of the aircraft as well. 

Maybe Jon can dig something out that demonstrates this concept.

[frank2056]

The Tesla Death Ray might fit your bill. Even though it says "ray" it actually shot out droplets of mercury plasma.

[pyro-manic]

Sounds a bit like the disruptor weapons in Star Trek? Cool idea.

Looks-wise, maybe something along the lines of the Gauss Gun/Tau Cannon from the Half Life games:

[Weaver]

Sounds like you need one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQDqCvGjhM&feature=related




On another tack, how about striking a blow for the Ray-Guns-Don't-Have-To-Look-Like-Bullet-Guns campaign and making it a "projector", i.e. more like an old camera with lots of "power" bits and maybe a pair of parrallel-plate "beam guides" instead of a barrel. The result would be a fan-shaped beam: maybe the beam guides could rotate to match the beam shape to the target's apparent motion?

[Daryl J.]

On another tack, how about striking a blow for the Ray-Guns-Don't-Have-To-Look-Like-Bullet-Guns campaign and making it a "projector", i.e. more like an old camera with lots of "power" bits and maybe a pair of parrallel-plate "beam guides" instead of a barrel. The result would be a fan-shaped beam: maybe the beam guides could rotate to match the beam shape to the target's apparent motion?

So a "lens" may be in order.


Daryl J.

[Weaver]

On another tack, how about striking a blow for the Ray-Guns-Don't-Have-To-Look-Like-Bullet-Guns campaign and making it a "projector", i.e. more like an old camera with lots of "power" bits and maybe a pair of parrallel-plate "beam guides" instead of a barrel. The result would be a fan-shaped beam: maybe the beam guides could rotate to match the beam shape to the target's apparent motion?

So a "lens" may be in order.


Daryl J.

Yep - crystals are always good too. It's the wrong time of year, but some fairy lights have faceted-crystal-shaped covers......

[Hobbes]

The beam guides could also consist of copper coils (with or without a core).

[Mossie]

And does it have to be a personal weapon, maybe early examples are quite clunky & need a mount?  If you can get hold of a spare Airfix 1/48 Lightning sprue (Airfix customers services might be able to send you one), or even a Trumpy 1/32 one, the prisms for the Firestreak & Lenses for the Red Tops might come in handy.  Coils can be made from clicky ballpoint pen springs.

Maybe something on the lines of this early cinema projector, with a few more do-dads?

[Just call me Ray]

Sounds like you need one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQDqCvGjhM&feature=related

Steampunk raygun?

I don't know if anyone's watched the half-satirical/half-they were just on weed miniseries "A Guide To History For Young People" on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (I thought it was hilarious). During the time of Jefferson's administration, a sci-fi author was running around with his stories about "steam lasers" - only to reveal they were just regular guns with a fancy name

[jcf]

In about 2109, it seems the conflict was finally precipitated. The Mongolians, with overwhelming fleets of great airships, and a science that far outstripped that of crippled America, swept in over the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, and down from Canada, annihilating American aircraft, armies and cities with their terrific disintegrator ray. These rays were projected from a machine not unlike a searchlight in appearance, the reflector of which, however, was not material substance, but a complicated balance of interacting electronic forces. This resulted in a terribly destructive beam. Under its influence, material substance melted into "nothingness"; i.e., into electronic vibrations. It destroyed all then known substances, from air to the most dense metals and stone.

From Armageddon: 2419 A.D., by Philip Frances Nowlan.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1928

Armageddon 2419 A.D. was the original Buck Rogers story.

Jon

[Daryl J.]

Armageddon 2419 A.D. was the original Buck Rogers story.

Y'know, I've never read or seen anything Buck Rogers related.   Now you've gotten me curious enough that I may have to chase down a story or two and read them.   All my life I've heard of him but it has been limited to that.   Perhaps that is part of the 'benefit' of growing up in a pretty remote area where there was so little TV reception, most people didn't even have one.   Off to www.amazon.com to check it out.

Thanks Jon.


Daryl J.

[jcf]

Hi Daryl,
the story is available from several sources as a copyright free download, here is a PDF:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2684.pdf?size=A4

Cheers

[Mossie]

Digging a little deeper into it, there would be a large crack (a boom with larger weapons), created as the beam disintergrated the air, water vapour & dust it travelled through (more accurately as the vaccum created by disentergration was refilled.  The prescence of the dust & water vapour would proably limit it's range to an extent.

A probable side effect would be radiation.  The sub-atomic particles suddenly broken free of their bonds would be scattered by the energy of the beam.  You could work this into your backstory in a number of ways.  In OTL, the effects of ionising raditaion were not known by WWI, so you could have a lot of people falling inexplicably sick & dying after the introduction of the machine.  Or you could say that the effects were well known in your time line, either as a result of the weapons development or other exotic machinery.  Or you could just ignore it!