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Was The Nikola Tesla Death
Ray a Real Possibility?
written by Shelly Barclay
Tesla was an inventor and engineer. He found particular success in the field of
electricity.
His
inventions, specifically the Tesla coil, continue to do amazing things even
nearly 70 years after his death.
The
inventions that he completed in his lifetime are not the whole of his legacy.
There
is at least one invention that Nikola Tesla certainly worked on, but that he
never completed.
That
is the Nicola Tesla death ray, also known as the Tesla death beam
and the Tesla particle beam weapon.
It
is said that Nikola Tesla’s childhood in Russia left him only two options for work
when he reached adulthood.
He
could either join the military or become a priest. He did neither, but he
leaned toward priesthood because he supposedly had an aversion to war.
Weapons
Designer
Later,
after he broke free from his preordained career choices, he designed weaponry
(among other things), attempting to market them to militaries as defensive
weapons.
Nikola
Tesla seems to have thought that he could bring an end to war with more
powerful weapons.
This
line of thinking is a mistake that many brilliant men have made.
Perhaps
the right weapon really will bring an end to war, but at the rate the world is
going, it will be because the human race destroys itself.
Nonetheless,
Tesla was an idealist and he put his brilliant mind to the task of creating a
superweapon.
The
Nicola Tesla Death Ray Would Make War Obsolete
It
was going to be so powerful that it could take out up to 10,000 airplanes from
250 miles away.
Tesla
envisioned a world where every country was protected by his death ray, making
war impractical.
Of
course, people would have just come up with other ways to fight or simply
annihilated each other with the Tesla death rays, but the idea was born.
Tesla
simply needed to sell it and build it.
Was
It Completed?
No
one is sure if Tesla ever completed a death ray, though none has officially
been found.
Some
believe that the Tunguska Event was actually Nikola Tesla’s death ray in
action. However, there is no clear evidence linking Tesla to the event.
The
event took place in Russia. The theoretically completed death ray was
supposedly on Long Island in the United States.
There
is no arguing that the distance from Long Island to Russia is much more than
the projected 250-mile range of Tesla’s weapon.
How
Did It Work?
The
real mystery surrounding the Nikola Tesla death ray is how exactly it was to
work.
Tesla
had plans for the weapon drawn up, but he kept certain aspects of it in his
head to prevent thievery.
This
was not unusual for Tesla, nor was thievery from scientists unusual at the
time.
The
most famous scientist of all time — Albert Einstein — spent the World War II
era protecting his inventions and discoveries.
While
the United States was contemplating buying the idea, supposedly to keep it out
of enemy hands, Nikola Tesla was hit by a car.
He reportedly
lost some of his mental functioning and the death ray idea with it, though he
survived.
What
technology could possibly produce such a weapon and would it have worked? We
may never know.
Even
if a similar weapon is built, we will never know if it is how Tesla meant for
it to be.
However,
when you bring Nikola Tesla into the equation, it appears likely that the death
ray would have come to fruition, given enough time and funding.
SHELLY BARCLAY writes on a variety of
topics from animal facts to mysteries in history. Her main focus is military
and political history. She is a writer for the Boston History Examiner,
Military History Examiner and the Boston American Revolution History Examiner.
She also writes for a local historical society newsletter.
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