Archimedes Death Ray Revisited

As usual, the Yanks got confused by titles, and were illogically dismissive of European scientists. George Louis LeClerc was the Comte de Buffon, it's a title not a name. The death ray had been the subject of much debate and many thought experiments. In 1747 the Compte identified the issue of needing a variable focus on a weapon, so performed several experiments of his own. The first test of his rig was 168 8×10inch mirrors with a focal point 150 feet away. Having succeeded in focusing his weapon, the Compte tried different distances and numbers of mirrors: At 66 feet, 40 mirrors almost immediately set fire to the creosoted wood. At 150 feet 128 mirrors set fire to an untreated plank of pine wood. At 20 feet 45 mirrors melted 6lb of tin.

Ioannis Sakkas's experiment was with closer to 50 sailors, they used bronze mirrors, and they perfectly recreated the death ray at 160 feet. Afterwards Sakkas said he was convinced that had Archimedes implemented the death ray, it would have worked.

Nobody has ever claimed to have proven it existed, just tested the theory behind it.

Its best not to ask a rocket scientist about history or military tactics.

Archimedes was a genius inventor and their city was under attack by the Roman army, there's no leap of faith needed to follow his directions. And getting a lot of people together for a single action is the definition of an army. That's exactly how they defended the city.

Features Cabiria (1914)