Death Ray Effective On Snakes (Aug, 1936)
Filed under: Impractical — @ 1:02 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1936
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1936
| Buy on Ebay
Yes, kill a snake in only eight and a half minutes! Of course this would only really work on animals that aren’t allowed to move. It seems like stepping on the snake would have been more effective.
Death Ray Effective On Snakes
A DEATH ray which proved its effectiveness before a San Francisco jury has been developed by Henry Fleur, Pacific Coast inventor. The apparatus which employs a light beam impregnated with infra-red rays successfully killed a snake in 8-1/2 minutes. A lizard was put to death in less than 6 minutes with only 30 seconds required to kill certain termites. Mounted on an adjustable tripod, ray can be aimed at objects in the same manner as a searchlight. The beam transmits a stream of high frequency vibrations.
I found out that the reason he was demonstrating it’s effectiveness to a jury is because he was being sued by his investors.
http://cdsun.library.cornell.e...../doc31.pdf
If I understand correctly it was supposed to kill insects like termites. After the demonstration he was acquitted and he allegedly swore he would never develop it to kill people.
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 10, 2007 @ 7:36 am
I think 8.5 minutes is the amount of time it’ll take a few strong people to lift the death ray and drop it on the snake.
Comment by Eli — December 10, 2007 @ 9:43 am
I guess a lamp with the same amount of power would kill a snake in 8,5 minutes.
Comment by Casandro — December 10, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
“The beam transmits a stream of high frequency vibrations.”
Uh, yeah. That’s what light is!
Comment by Rick Auricchio — December 10, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
As far as I can tell it was a really high-powered lamp. I bet that that snake was nice and crispy.
Does anyone have any more information about him? I can’t seem to find anything.
Comment by Eamonn — December 10, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
“Something seems to be wrong with our Death Ray. I’m standing right in it, and I’m not dead yet.”
— Jamie Hyneman, “Mythbusters”
Comment by nlpnt — December 10, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
Eamonn I even did a search of the patent database and there are no inventions patented by someone named Henry Fleur.
He’s mentioned in a contemporary account in an out of print book The Death Ray Man: The Biography of Grindell Matthews, Inventor and Pioneer by Ernest Haydn Garnet Barwell
On Page 101 we find:”Henry Fleur, another San Francisco inventor, announced that his was a cold ray which could pierce an eighteen-inch wall seven miles away, and kill every living thing within the radius of the light..”
He must have had a forerunner of the O.J. jury at his trial.
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 10, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
Thanks!
Comment by Eamonn — December 10, 2007 @ 11:26 pm
But doesn’t it look great? i think I’ll build one. I estimate I could kill an attacking rhinocerous in as short a time as fifteen days,eight hours, sixteen and a quarter minutes. Having previously informed the rhinocerous in advance, by letter.
Comment by Oliver — March 30, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
The story about Henry Fleur and his death ray appeared in the Fort Worth Star Telegram (newspaper) on Thursday, 14 May 1936, on page 1. I could not find it in the New York Times, but I do have a copy of the Star Telegram article, which is genuine. Fleur simply repeated an operation conducted by a number of people–both charlatans and serious scientists–but its effectiveness was limited to only a few feet. The problem with all the death rays, even those that worked, was that it was technologically impossible to generate enough energy to project them at distances sufficient to be effective as a military weapon.
Comment by Bill Fanning — July 23, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
Was he also working on a ’stand still ray’ so the enemy wouldn’t move during the 9 and a half hours needed for the death ray to kill them?
Comment by EC — June 2, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
There is such a thing as a stand still ray, only we normally call it “television.”
Comment by Toronto — June 3, 2009 @ 12:27 am