Raygun
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
A raygun is a
Real-world analogues are directed-energy weapons or electrolasers: electroshock weapons which send current along an electrically conductive laser-induced plasma channel.[citation needed]
History
A very early example of a raygun is the
According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction,[3] the word "ray gun" was first used by Victor Rousseau in 1917, in a passage from The Messiah of the Cylinder:[4]
All is not going well, Arnold: the ray-rods are emptying fast, and our attack upon the lower level of the wing has failed. Sanson has placed a ray-gun there. All depends on the air-scouts, and we must hold our positions until the battle-planes arrive.
The variant "ray projector" was used by
Ray guns were so common on magazine covers during the
By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon became evident, rayguns were dubbed "
In his book Physics of the Impossible,
Function
Ray guns as described by science fiction do not have the disadvantages that have, so far, made directed-energy weapons largely impractical as weapons in real life, needing a suspension of disbelief by a technologically educated audience:
- Ray guns draw seemingly limitless power from often unspecified sources. In contrast to their real-world counterparts, the batteries or power packs of even handheld weapons are minute, durable, and do not seem to need frequent recharging.
- Ray guns in movies are often shown as shooting discrete pulses of energy visible from off-axis, traveling slowly enough for people to see them emerge, or even for the target to evade them,laser light is invisible from off-axis and travels at the speed of light. This effect could sometimes be attributed to the beam heating atmosphere that it was passing through. A possible evasion tactic is dodging the firing axis of the gun, theorized in the early story of Mobile Suit Gundam by the character Char Aznablewhen he first encountered the series protagonist's machine's beam rifle and seemingly dodging it without any difficulty.
Some of the effects are what would be expected from a powerful directed-energy beam if it could be generated in reality:
- Ray guns are often shown as transmitting heat rays.[2]
- Ray guns may be used to cut through hard materials like a blowtorch.[2]
But sometimes not:
- In movies, rays are often depicted as having effect instantaneously, with a touch of the beam sufficing for the intended purpose.[2] Raygun victims are generally killed instantaneously, often – as in the Star Wars films – without showing visible wounds or even holes in their clothing.[2]
- Some rayguns cause their targets to disappear ("de-materialize", disintegrate, vaporize or evaporate) entirely, personal equipment and all.
- Visible barrel recoil. This would only happen if the momentum of the beam were comparable to that of a bullet shot from a gun.
- A wide range of non-lethal functions as determined by the requirements of the story: for instance, they may stun, paralyze or knock down a target, much like modern electroshock weapons.[2] Occasionally the rays may have other effects, such as the "freeze rays" in the TV series Batman (1966–1968) and Underdog (1964–1970).[2] Many of the more implausible functions are almost farcical and include rayguns that age or de-age people (various cartoons); shrink rays (Fantastic Voyage, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), and a "dehydration ray" (Megamind).
Ultimately, rayguns have whatever properties are required for their dramatic purpose. They bear little resemblance to real-world directed-energy weapons, even if they are given the names of existing technologies such as lasers,
Rayguns by their various names have various sizes and forms: pistol-like; two-handed (often called a rifle); mounted on a vehicle; artillery-sized mounted on a spaceship or space base or asteroid or planet.
Rayguns have a great variety of shapes and sizes, according to the imagination of the story writers or movie
Types
The "rays" the guns use vary. They are sometimes equated to real life technologies such as:
- lasers
- particle beams, e.g. protons and/or neutrons from the proton packs in Ghostbusters
- plasma rifles, Star Wars "Blasters"
Alternately, the weapon mechanics can be purely fictional. Fictional ray types include:
- " series
- "phasers in Star Trek
List of rayguns
The following is a list of notable rayguns.
Literature
- The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
- collimated lightbeam weapon
- Lasgun, a laser projector from the Duneseries of books
Film and television
- Proton pack, an energy weapon used for weakening ghosts and aiding in capturing them in the film Ghostbusters
- weapons of Star Trek
- Blasters, standard weapons of the Star Wars universe.
Games
- Doom and Quakeseries of games
See also
References
- ^ Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford University Press, 2007, page 162
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Van Riper, op. cit., p. 46.
- ^ Peter Nicholls, John Clute, and David Langford, "Ray Gun", The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 3rd edition, Jan 15, 2016.
- ^ Victor Rousseau, "The Messiah of the Cylinder", serialized in Everybody's Magazine, June–September 1917 (ISFDB link).
- ^ Winchell Chung, "Introduction to Sidearms", Project Rho: Atomic Rockets (accessed 3 March 2016).
- ^ Pontin, Mark Williams (November–December 2008). "The Alien Novelist". MIT Technology Review.
- ISBN 0-313-31822-0.
- ^ Van Riper, op.cit., p. 47.
External links
- Atomic Rocket: descriptions and technology and many images of handguns and rifle-sized guns used in space including rayguns.
- The Virtual Ray Gun Exhibition: Computer-generated ray gun art by various artists.