The Solar Death Ray of Archimedes

Of the few surviving works of Archimedes the great, three manuscripts stand alone as containing highly advanced technology, much of which has only been rediscovered in modern times. And each of these has been passed down through time by an extraordinary tale of its’ use or discovery.

Among these manuscripts , is a book of advanced warfare, and contained among the pages is a technical and mathematical description of a solar-powered weapon of tremendous capabilities.

Like much of Archimedes’ writings, these advanced technologies are overlooked by modern science, even to this day.

But the Solar Death Ray stood out, as it was the central turning point of a major war in history:
The battle of Syracuse, in Sicily.
As legend goes, Archimedes used his weapon to defend the city, setting ships ablaze in the harbor.

This has been considered only a legend by our modern society, and existed only as a historical relic, and tales of old.

In 1973, Greek scientists in Athens attempted to recreate the device, but despite reports of success, the experiment was largely overlooked by mainstream science.....

Until 2004

When Eric Jacqmain was studying Archimedean technology and came across the plans for the Solar Death Ray.

Does it work? He wondered.....
Is it possible?
He began to research the historical battle, and optical science, and slowly began piecing together a vision for a working device, made from materials he had lying around.

One by one, he carefully attached mirrors to a wooden frame, aiming each reflection of the sun to the same focal point. One by one the power of the sun increased. 1x sun, 2x suns, 3x and 4!
Soon the spot he aimed at became flooded with intense sunlight! Eureka he shouted, as Archimedes would have surely done in his time.
It worked! And so was born his website:
(no longer existing) SolarDeathRay.com

Where he proceeded to incinerate every element known to man and a whole bunch of other stuff no one has thought to burn, in front of the world, for the purpose of science, of course.

It went viral in the energy research community, as we realized we had actually Seen this technology being used! On the side of a Star Wars imperial battle cruiser! (Wtf George!)

Tens of thousands of backyard solar death ray’s began popping up all over the world,
and later that year the MythBuster’s t.v. Series did a show on the device. We were Sooo excited!
They were going to announce on television that the device we had all been working on had helped to prove Archimedes was right!

When the episode aired we were devastated.
They lied! How could they? We know it works,
why would they hide it? So we pushed on, adding more mirrors to our projects, making them, bigger more powerful. Hoping the world would catch on.

Well, as fate would have it, the U.S. military started building them in the desert, and the Prime Minister of Italy wasn’t afraid to give it a try, and the world’s first Solar Death Ray power plant was created.

Soon energy companies worldwide adopted the technology for the purpose of electricity production.

We give special thanks to Eric for unearthing this technology as we remember Archimedes the great and all of the wonderful ways he has made our world a better place.