(urth) "Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe

[Gwern Branwen]

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 4:02 PM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
> You could have said death-ray guns. They were "invented" in the twenties, I
> think.

Actually, I've been reading the 1897 serialized novel, _Edison's
Conquest of Mars_
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Conquest_of_Mars on Project
Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1515336&pageno=1

Besides electrical spaceships, Thomas Edison also invents radiation
guns that 'vibrate' at frequencies which dissociate atoms -
disintegrators. Seem like death-ray guns to me!

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net