An addition the the History Lesson! For all of you that don't know, Tesla became quite loony in his age. The 'Death Ray' is one of his ideas from his most loony times. He began working on the idea in 1916, and tried to sell it to the government in 1945. From the New York Times: "...will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles from the defending nation's border and will cause armies of millions to drop dead in their tracks..."