The sun has always been a source of heat, light, energy and even food for man.
The big bright orb in the sky has proven to be a touchstone of religious movements in centuries past with the ability to scare those who worship it when it disappears temporarily.
Legend has it that Archimedes tried to harness it for military purposes. The Mythbusters put on their thinking caps and combined with teenagers to disprove the theory of the mirror-laden Death Ray in an episode.
Since their experiment disproved the tale of Archimedes’ mirrored weapon, there have been a couple of occasions where solar “Death Rays” have come to light including the architectural FAIL of a Las Vegas hotel.
Adam and Jamie of the popular TV show apparently didn’t use the right teenager when they tested the myth.
Indiana teen Eric Jacqmain put together 5,800 tiny mirrors on what looks an like old satellite dish and created a focused light that blazed through metal, ignited wood, melted concrete and pretty much anything else placed in the way of its focused beam of solar light.
Jacqmain posted a video showing just exactly what his solar blaster was capable of perpetrating.
Dubbed the R5800 Solar Death Ray by its inventor, the light beam blaster proved to be its own worst enemy. The shed the contraption was stored in burned in an accidental fire that has been blamed on the mirrored dish.
Undeterred, Jacqmain states that he intends to build a bigger and more powerful solar panel with more than five times the mirrors of the R5800.
