Comments on: Light Beam Stands Guard on Prison to Quell Jailbreak (Jul, 1930)

By: docca

docca — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:55:29 +0000

“Oh no, my ass has been detected!”

By: Dowser

Dowser — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:11:04 +0000

No problem, the moth don’t stand a chance against a lead slug!

By: rsterling78

rsterling78 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:58:26 +0000

Wouldn’t moths be attracted to the light at night and interrupt the beam?

And wouldn’t topping the wall with razor wire be a bit more practical?

By: Torgo

Torgo — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:08:26 +0000

Technically the gun should be at the receiver, not the transmitter. That’s how I have mine hooked up.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:53:02 +0000

a machine gun, is being installed in many prisons housing intractable criminals.

so how many do you think were actually installed?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:44:39 +0000

Look at the ways its pointed…if it started to fire, yes you might hit someone climbing up the wall, but you would almost certainly hit the side of the prison and maybe even get a few bullets into that little window…haha.

By: Dowser

Dowser — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:23:19 +0000

Myles, it might be a problem to get your newspaper delivered if you don’t remember to turn it off in time, but sure!

Eamon, as I mentioned before, it was used for period to “protect” the no-mans-land on the east-german side of the Berlin wall.

And it seems like Israel is going in the same direction: http://blog.wired.com/defense/.....and_y.html

By: Eamon

Eamon — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:38:21 +0000

Does anyone know if it was ever actually used? The article says it was being installed in many prisons but who knows if that’s true.

By: LightningRose

LightningRose — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:10:31 +0000

This reminds me of the old saying, “The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

By: Myles

Myles — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:00:05 +0000

Charlie . Looking at the diagram, things probably also get interesting when the bulb burns out.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:56:50 +0000

Myles: Or childcare! Though blood can be a bit hard to get out of the carpet.

By: Myles

Myles — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:21:08 +0000

I’m impressed. We could install these in our homes and turn them on at night. Then we wouldn’t have to pay for police or monitoring services.

By: Dowser

Dowser — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:09:59 +0000

Don’t forget about fog, rain or snow, they will all be swiftly handled by the relentless robo-guard!

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:49:26 +0000

Birds, squirrels, falling leaves… all quickly mowed down by the unblinking eye!

By: Dowser

Dowser — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:25:44 +0000

Well, he should not be there…

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:23:28 +0000

Dowser: Just that as a general rule you don’t trust in the infallibility of machines to decide when to kill people. What if a guard fell off of a wall? Or a maintenance tech forgot, or didn’t know it was there?

By: Dowser

Dowser — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:49:31 +0000

Another way would just to shine a flash-light at it and sneak through un-detected and without making any noice.

But what was “They really didn’t think these things out too well” all about?

Btw, the nasty thing about this solution was probably that it was deployed on the east-german side of the Berlin wall for quite som time.

By: nlpnt

nlpnt — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:20:43 +0000

…which would make enough of a racket to bring every guard in the place to the spot.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:38:57 +0000

To get around it, all you’d have to do is hold something up in front of the beam and cause the gun to fire until the ammo is depleted.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:49:23 +0000

The 1930′s laser-fence.