The Death Ray: The History and Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Nikola Tesla's Futuristic Weapon

"My apparatus projects particles which may be relatively large or of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small area at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can thus be transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that nothing can resist. The nozzle would 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 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks." - Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla was one of history's greatest scientists, and though he is best known for his pioneering work with electricity, the fact that he is mostly remembered solely for that actually does a disservice to his legacy. Born a Serb in the Austrian Empire, Tesla came to the United States and worked in a laboratory for none other than the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison. Having established AC as an electrical supply system, Tesla became a global celebrity, and his devices and inventions fascinated people. Tesla tinkered with everything from X-rays to wireless communications and even attempted a primitive form of the radio. While Tesla was not able to successfully execute the devices and concepts he foresaw, his forward thinking in fields like wireless communication certainly proved prescient, and his futuristic devices and his later reputation for eccentricity helped create the "mad scientist" image that still remains a pop culture fixture. Tesla seemed to have come to grips with this aspect of his legacy late in life, noting, "The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter - for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way." During World War I, in December 1915, Tesla gave an interview to The New York Times in which he claimed he was working on something entirely new, a weapon that would use electrical power to instantly destroy a distant target. He explained that this weapon was "so far developed that great destructive effects can be produced at any point on the globe, determined beforehand and with great accuracy." Tesla called this new weapon the "Teleforce," and he would continue working on this project for the rest of his life, but he consistently refused to give details of its operation. Many people believed it was impractical, but with Tesla, it was never possible to be entirely certain, and as it turned out, Tesla wasn't the only inventor working on what would become known as a "death ray." Tesla died in 1943 at the age of 86, while World War II was at its peak, and soon after, his papers would be seized by an agency of the federal government. It seems certain that this material must have included details of the Teleforce, and files that have been released since suggest that the U.S. Army Air Force undertook research based on a study of these papers. This presumably included the Teleforce, but if so, that research didn't lead to the development of a prototype. Naturally, the mystery surrounding Teleforce became the subject of a heated debate that continues to the present day. Did Tesla really invent a new and devastating weapon that would render conventional armed forces obsolete? If he did, what happened to the details of that weapon?