In a popular Russian film in the fantasy genre, one of the wizards claimed: “everything that is created by our imagination must exist in the Universe”. In 1927, in his fantasy novel “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin” A.N. Tolstoy described history creating a device that emits "death rays". Perhaps the author came up with the idea of the existence of such a device after reading the works of the English inventor Grindell Matthews published abroad in 1924. Or the thought of a miracleweapons at A.N. Tolstoy appeared after reading Herbert Wells' novel “War of the Worlds” (1897). In this work, the young Briton described in detail the effect of "thermal rays": after the beam fell on any object, it instantly ignited, reaching a white-hot flame, while emitting dazzling light.
Although A.N. Tolstoy said that two circumstances inspired him to write the novel: a fascinating view of the Shukhov Tower, with sections going up rapidly in the form of hyperboloids, as well as the story of an old friend A.N. Tolstoy - Venison about the Siberian inventor, who designed a double hyperboloid, but died under mysterious circumstances.
Humanity has always tried, first of all, to use new inventions for military purposes, and only then to solve civilian problems. Perhaps this is because the military departments of any of the countries easily financed the development of weapons of the future and this fact was cleverly used by scammers. Such as Grindell Matthews, who received 25 thousand pounds from the British military, demonstrated to the military the operation of a simple photocell instead of the expected "death rays". The Italian Ulivi also deceived the British - when demonstrating the detonation of a mine with the help of the device he designed, he used an “assistant” - a mini torpedo. Ulivi, after an urgent escape from the shores of Misty Albion, was able to convince Italian industrialists and Admiral Fornani of the reality of the existence of an apparatus that emits rays that are deadly to all living and nonliving things. But after the exposure, he disappeared without a trace.
It must be said that one of the most important tasks being solved by American and European scientists in the 19 century is the possibility of transmitting energy over a distance without using wires. This technology had a multilateral purpose. First, wireless power transmission would save on the construction of power lines. Secondly, it became possible to transfer energy from the base source to transport infrastructure facilities: ships, airplanes, cars, etc. Thirdly, by generating and transmitting a huge amount of energy to one particular point in the enemy’s territory, a strong explosion could have been triggered. This technology would be the basis for creating a grandiose weapon that would change the whole tactics of warfare.
Everyone knows that the first who applied the action of the sun's rays for military purposes was the Greek Archimedes. With the help of specially designed devices, which were based on mirrors, Archimedes managed to focus the sun's rays at a specific point and thus set fire to Roman ships.
The fact that this was not a legend was able to prove to the Greek scientist Yoanis Sakas in 1973 year. With the help of seventy mirrors, he sent a ray of sunshine on a wooden ship, and in three minutes the ship flashed.
In Russia, the father of the theory and practice of creating "deadly rays" became Ph.D. MM. Filippov. His theory of the long-distance transmission of an explosion wave (for example, the explosion in St. Petersburg itself, and its consequences in Constantinople) seemed to be sheer insanity, but the concept author himself believed that in this way he would stop all wars on Earth. After his mysterious and tragic death, it became known that just before his death, Fillipov told his friend Professor Trachevsky that he had conducted a series of successful experiments. With enthusiasm, he argued that: “It’s so easy, moreover, cheap! It's amazing how they still haven't thought of it. ” And although no information on the invention of Filippov was preserved, modern scientists have suggested that Filippov could build a nitrogen chloride laser.
In 1908, the world was shaken by the sensational reports that Nikola Tesla created a high-frequency apparatus, which stopped the operation of a power station in Colorado, which was located at a considerable distance from the scientist's laboratory.
After such news, the world immediately believed in 1923 that European newspapers reported that Germany had radiation weapons capable of stopping aircraft engines at a distance, tanks and cars. It was at this time that the engines stopped at eight planes over the same place in Bavaria, flying along the Paris-Bucharest highway.
The brilliant Russian physicist Abram Fedorovich Ioffe approached the real model of the device that generates the "death rays". In December 1932, after reviewing the project of the emitter by the competent commission, it was decided to continue work on the basis of the Physico-Technical Institute. The scientists had a task: the radius of the rays must be at least 400 meters. The work was carried out under the supervision of Yagoda and Ordzhonikidze. The result was a field installation, which required a powerful electric generator. The project was not finally implemented due to the impossibility of concentrating the enormous energy capacity and high financial value of the plan.
In 30-ies many interesting projects of radiation weapons were proposed. For example, a certain Smirnov proposed a project of an emitter of ultrashort waves, whose action is safe for people, but the rays, creating resonant currents in the engine ignition system, disabled it. The disadvantage of this project was the too short distance at which the radiation installation operated - about 20-30 meters.
The first quantum generator, whose action was reminiscent of the Death Rays apparatus described by science fiction writers, was created by Theodore Meiman in the 1960 year. He was called a laser.
This device has become an indispensable assistant to humanity. It is used in various fields: from microsurgery and home appliances to astronautics. And, of course, in the military field, as a powerful weapon. The main use of lasers in the military field is the destruction of shells, missiles and enemy aircraft on the approach to their territory.
More than twenty years and $ 3 billion has been spent by American scientists and designers from the Los Alamos laboratory and the Mission Research company to develop luchemets. The exact parameters of the ray gun are kept secret. But senior US military officer Harry Moore mentioned that the rifle is a chemical laser that shoots short pulses. Under the action of this laser beam, the object begins to literally evaporate before our eyes. Tests have shown that mannequins in body armor, located at a distance of three kilometers, were easily destroyed. A physicist from the University of Dortmund asserts that when a laser pulse hits a person’s nose or mouth, a person’s lungs rupture. When it gets into the eye, it turns into plasma and bursts. And if you increase the power of the pulse twice, then it will become fatal regardless of the place of impact.
American scientists are developing a humane version of laser weapons, which stuns and has a paralyzing effect on enemy fighters and disables electronics and vehicles.
Another version of laser weapons is being created in the New Mexico military laboratory, called the “Active Branch System”. This microwave device, as it were, “drives away” enemies, heating up water molecules in the human body. The pain is so severe that people run away without sustaining it. A decision has already been made to place this system in combat jeeps of the American armed forces for the purpose of conducting tests.
Americans have always sought to protect themselves from the actions of enemy missiles. The program to create a missile defense (missile defense) involves the placement of lasers on satellites and aircraft. The competent commission proposed the military department to use the Boeing-747 for this purpose. In January, 2001, the first YAL-1A, equipped with a chemical iodine-oxygen laser, made its first flight from the Everett airfield. This laser was developed by TRV based on the latest technologies and modern materials (unique plastics, titanium alloys and composites). The laser is mounted on the main deck of the aircraft on two titanium panels. The laser beam passes through a special tube to the nose turret. The beam is focused by a 1.5 meter mirror, the viewing area is 120 °. Although because of the crisis, Americans have reduced funding for this project, the prototype is already functioning and is undergoing tests, close to the fighting ones.
But Russian experts did not lag behind their American counterparts. Back in Soviet times, the Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Thermonuclear Research created a mobile laser system, located on the trailers of the Chelyabinsk plant. The whole structure consists of a laser radiation generator with an optical resonator block and a gas discharge chamber, a beam forming and guidance system, a control cabin and an aircraft turbojet engine, a tank for liquefied carbon dioxide, a tank with aviation gasoline. The deployment time of this complex is two to three hours.
Currently, this complex is used to eliminate fires at gas infrastructure facilities, burn off oil films in water areas, crush rocky arrays, deactivate the surface of nuclear power plants, and destroy insects.
Americans have found other uses for mobile laser devices. The task of a tactical high-energy laser is the destruction of short-range missiles. This project is jointly implemented by experts from the USA and Israel. The interest in this of Israelis is understandable - they need protection from Iraq’s missiles and Hezbollah projectiles. The basis of a mobile laser weapon is an infrared chemical laser operating on a mixture of fluorine and deuterium gases. A feature of this mixture is that the rays generated by it are not absorbed by the atmosphere. During tests, the Katyusha (BM-13) and Grad (BM-21) rocket launchers were undermined by this installation, and the laser was not brought to full power. For transportation of the installation over long distances, standard military armored vehicles are used.
The Pentagon is planning to use Death Rays to deploy a global anti-missile defense network and to fight terrorism.
The Russian creator of missile weapons, Yuri Sizov, believes that it is possible to place laser installations on civilian aircraft that can shoot down Igr or Stinger-type missile systems - this will allow us to really counter the threats of terrorist acts. Another talented Russian inventor said that Russia possesses effective laser technologies for protecting aircraft from missiles.
China also joined the development of unearthly laser weapons. The Chinese have placed a laser turret on their ZTZ-99G tank, the task of which is to disable enemy optical systems and blind gunners.
Armed with the Russian army were laser systems "Aquilon" and the system "Compression". The “Compression” system was able to automatically search for glare objects and destroy them with an existing battery of lasers.
Given the fact that work on the creation of combat lasers continues in almost all countries, Russia should be ready to take retaliatory measures. Consequently, domestic developers must create not only laser attack systems, but also protection devices against the laser combat systems of the enemy.
Materials used:
http://tainy.info/technics/paraboloid-smerti/
http://www.xliby.ru/astronomija_i_kosmos/zvezdnye_voiny_amerikanskaja_respublika_protiv_sovetskoi_imperii/p9.php
http://apervushin.narod.ru/book/Weapon/Weapon1.htm
http://lifestyle.ru.msn.com/tech/skyguard-%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC-%D0%BF%D0%BE-%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BC