Weapons of Science Fiction

A long standing interest of our race has been the creation and use of new and futuristic weaponry. From some of the earliest science fiction books (written in as early as 1900) stories of "land ironclads" crawling across the countryside by foreign armies and annihilating their technologically inferior enemies.

Often a stunning revelation is that these strange new implements of destruction are created in writing before they are physically made in the world. An example being the atomic bomb being envisioned by H.G. Wells in 1914, 30 years before its creation and use in the second World War.

Weapons of increasing popularity with shows such as Star Trek, Star Wars, and the writings of Arthur C. Clarke are energy weaponry. Primarily envisioned as beams of light or heat that can disintegrate things, from their invention as an idea in the 1950's they rapidly became one of the most popular scifi themed weapons, particularly in the 60's and 70's. Five years later in 1965 the laser was invented, though of course nowhere near as powerful or impressive as its authors had forethought it, this fledgeling technology would have impacts in surgery, data recording, music, architecture, landscaping, and even photography.