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"The world is really so surreal these days that it's necessary for us to blunt it somehow in order to stay sane. The artist functions to short-circuit the buffering mechanism, so that people can occasionally perceive the weirdness of things as they are."
- William Gibson
 |
| Ray Pistol | ||
| A handheld device for projecting radiative force of some kind. |
| “Say — that’s some building material! Just look at that granite rock— smashed into sand ! Yet the window is scarcely scratched ! Look how the frame that held it is torn — just torn, not broken. I wonder if we can tear it loose altogether? I’ll take my ray pistol and try it from here, but if it comes loose we will have a shower of stones and dirt, so look out!” said Arcot, stepping forward. There was a thud as his metal bar crashed down when the ray was shut off. Then, as the others got out of the way, he stepped toward the window and turned his ray on it. More and more power was used, till suddenly there was a rending crash, and they saw only a leaping column of earth, and sand, and broken granite flying up through the hole in the steel shell. There was a sudden violent crash, then a moment later a second equally violent crash as the window, having flown up to the “ceiling” came thumping back to the floor. |
| From The Black Star Passes,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Here's another excerpt:
“Certainly, Dr. Arcot. They are to be under your
commands.”
The party, increased to five now, returned to the ship,
where Arcot showed the men the details of the ray pis-
tols, and how to use them. The control for direction of
operation of the ray was rather intricate on these early
models, and required considerable explanation. The
range of even these small weapons was infinite in space,
according to theory, but in air the energy was rather
rapidly absorbed by ionization of the air, and the dispersion of the beam made it ineffective in space over a
range of more than thirty-five miles. However, the
larger ship projectors had a longer range, and these
were certainly sufficient for their purpose as hand
weapons.
compare to the heat ray from War of the Worlds (1898) by HG Wells, the death-ray from The World Masters (1903) by George Griffiths, the
short-wave surgical knife from Boomerang (1953) by Eric Frank Russell, the
pencil heat ray from Brigands of the Moon (1930) by Ray Cummings and the
flesh gun from The Computer Connection (1974) by Alfred Bester.
“I believe these men are all armed with the standard
revolver, are they not?” replied Arcot. “I think we
will be considerably safer if I arm them with some of
the new director ray pistols. I have several in the tool
box of the machine. It will be all right, I suppose?”
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