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See directed-energy weapon for various real weapons which are more or less like rayguns.:See Directed-energy weapon#Mythology for energy weapons in ancient mythologies. See Directed-energy weapon#Tesla for reports that Tesla made a real raygun or similar. See Electrolaser for an electric current sent down an ionized track made by a laser beam. Rayguns are a type of directed-energy weapon. They are a classic and widespread feature of science fiction. Types of raygun have various names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, etc. They supply the general role of guns in the scenarios of many stories. All rayguns are fictional as far as now known.
History A very early example is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which was published in 1898. Science fiction as far back as the 1920s emphasized death rays as the weapons of choice. Early science fiction often showed raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs. When the laser, invented in 1960, became industrial reality in the 1960s, the generic fictional death rays were often renamed "lasers" (see Science fiction weapon). By the late 1960s and 1970s however, the laser's limits as a weapon were evident, and less specific terms such as "phaser" (see Star Trek) or "blaster" (see Star Wars) were used. Types The ray fired is stated in each scenario to be laser or particle beam or plasma, or some form of energy which does not exist in the real world, or is undefined. Sometimes in science fiction stories, rayguns are used for metal cutting like blowtorches. In some science fiction, some rayguns have a firing mode that can stun its target instead of killing. Rayguns under their various names come in various sizes and forms: pistol; two-handed (often called a rifle); mounted on a vehicle; artillery-sized mounted on a spaceship or space base or asteroid or planet. The pistol form is seen most often. A "beam gun" in anime is an energy weapon which fires a colored beam of light. "FX-Ray laser" in American science fiction and animation is a humorous name for a raygun that fires a visible beam: FX is the show biz acronym for special effects. Rayguns are a great variety of shapes and sizes, according to the imagination of the story writers and movie prop makers. Most pistol rayguns have a conventional pistol grip and trigger, but some (e.g. some Star Trek phasers) do not. The shapes of some rayguns are influenced by an opinion that they look most effective and weapon-like if they look somewhat like real guns; others (e.g. in the image at ) are not. Many rayguns do not behave like classical lasers or particle beams:- Why rayguns are fictional, as far as is generally known Real rayguns? Recent developments in the real world in Directed-energy weapons have produced artillery-sized weapons which might be described as rayguns, but usually are not. Also see electrolaser. Real lasers can do damage: some are powerful enough to bore holes through steel. HERF cannons (= high-energy radio-frequency weapons), which work on the same principles as microwave ovens, have also shown potential. Some fictional rayguns See also Images of rayguns Image:Raygun.svg|A typical imaginary raygun Image:Aa raygun 05 labelled.jpg|Imaginary raygun, 2 views, with parts labelled Image:Aa raygun big pboat sp 01 wsb.jpg|Small artillery sized version of same, in use Other uses of the word | ||||||||
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