High Energy Laser (HEL): Tomorrow's Weapon in Directed Energy Weapons Volume I - Paperback

by Bahman Zohuri (Author)

Directed Energy Weapons is nothing new to mankind, historically the origination of such weapons falls in centuries ago when first time the famous Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer Archimedes of Syracuse used different mirrors to collect sunbeams and focusing them on Roman's fleet in order to destroy enemy ships with fire. This is known as the Archimedes Heat Ray. Archimedes may have used mirrors acting collectively as a parabolic reflector to burn ships attacking Syracuse. The device was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. Of course the myth or reality of Archimedes Heat Ray still is a questionable story, but certain experiments with the help of a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology was carried out with 127 one-foot (30 cm) square mirror tiles in October of 2005 that was focused on a mock-up wooden ship at a range of around 100 feet (30 m). The flames broke out on a patch of the ship, but only after the sky had been cloudless and the ship had remained stationary for around ten minutes. It was concluded the device was a feasible weapon under these conditions.