''The Garin Death Ray'', also known as ''The Death Box'' and ''The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin'' (russian: Гиперболоид инженера Гарина), is a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
novel by the noted Russian author
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (russian: link= no, Алексей Николаевич Толстой; – 23 February 1945) was a Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels.
Despite having ...
written in 1926–1927.
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
, who included parodic elements in his tragicomedy '' The Waltz Invention'' (1938), considered it Tolstoy's finest fictional work.
The " hyperboloid" in its title is not a geometrical surface (though it is utilized in the device design) but a "
death ray
The death ray or death beam was a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon first theorized around the 1920s and 1930s. Around that time, notable inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Harry Grindell Matthews, Edwin R. Sco ...
"-
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...
-like device (thought up by the author many decades before lasers were invented) that the protagonist, engineer Garin, used to fight his enemies and try to become the
dictator
A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...
of the world. The idea of a "death ray" (popularized in ''
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
Heat-Ray
The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the fictional race of extraterrestrials from the H.G. Wells 1898 novel ''The War of the Worlds''. They are the main antagonists of the novel, and their efforts to exterminate the populace of the Ear ...
, which uses a parabolic mirror) to concentrate light rays in a parallel beam. Larger "hyperboloids" can destroy military ships on the horizon, and those of less power can only injure people and cut electric cables on walls of rooms.
Influence
Charles H. Townes
Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
, the inventor of laser, said that his invention had been inspired by this novel.
The film adaptations of the novel were released in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
(''
Failure of Engineer Garin
''Failure of Engineer Garin'' (russian: Крах инженера Гарина, translit. Krakh inzhenera Garina) is a 1973 Soviet television film in four parts loosely based on a novel '' Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin'' by Alexei Tolstoy. ...
'').
The Soviet rock band
Kino
Kino may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasters
* KINO, a radio station in Arizona, U.S.
* Kino FM (98.0 FM – Moscow), a Russian music radio station
* KinoTV, now Ruutu+ Leffat ja Sarjat, a Finnish TV channel
Fictional entiti ...
was originally known as ''Garin i giperboloydy'' (russian: Гарин и Гиперболоиды, ''Garin and the hyperboloids'').
The
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
n punk band
Vennaskond
Vennaskond ( Estonian for ''Brotherhood'') is an Estonian punk rock band founded in 1984. The band has toured in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Romania, Sweden, Germany, France, India, Poland and the United States (including CBGB). To show respect ...
has a song "Insener Garini hüperboloid" (1993) (The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin in Estonian).
The
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n band Piknik has a song "Гиперболоид" (Hyperboloid) (2008).