Soon after the invention of lasers during 1960, such devices became briefly fashionable as a directed-energy weapon for science fiction stories. The term 'ray gun' had already become cliché by the 1940s, in part due to association with the comic strips (and later film serials) Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Ray guns were so common on magazine covers during the Golden Age of Science Fiction that Campbell's Astounding was unusual for not depicting them. Serviss' Edison's Conquest of Mars 'blaster' dates to 1925 in Nictzin Dyalhis' story 'When the Green Star Waned ' and 'needle ray' and 'needler' date to 1934 in E.E. Related terms 'disintegrator ray' dates to 1898 in Garrett P. Campbell in The Black Star Passes in 1930. The variant 'ray projector' was used by John W. All depends on the air-scouts, and we must hold our positions until the battle-planes arrive. Early science fiction often described or depicted raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs.Īccording to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the word 'ray gun' was first used by Victor Rousseau in 1917, in a passage from The Messiah of the Cylinder: Īll is not going well, Arnold: the ray-rods are emptying fast, and our attack upon the lower level of the wing has failed. Science fiction during the 1920s described death rays.

Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1898). A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H.

Call of duty ray gun