From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 01:50:03 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Fwd: Set Phasers to Stun.
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Resent-Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 12:56:52 -0500
From: glen@substance.abuse.blackdown.org
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Cc: bostic@bsdi.com
Subject: Set Phasers to Stun.
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 12:56:48 -0500
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Forwarded-by: Mark Stewart <mark@ps.cus.umist.ac.uk>
Forwarded-by: DarkTrick <dan@coromir.demon.co.uk>

      1    NS  01 Nov 97 SET PHASERS TO SHOCK . . . (358)

           By PAUL GUINNESSY

Real life is catching up with Star Trek. Hans Eric Herr from San
Diego,California, has been granted a patent for a 'phaser' that uses
laser light to stun or kill.

Crude stun weapons called tasers are already available in the US. The
weapons fire two small darts attached to a wire. A pulsing electrical
current passes down the wire and stuns the victim by 'tetanisation'. The
pulses make the muscles of the victim contract in unison, rendering
them helpless.

The disadvantages of tasers are that they can only be fired once before
they have to be reloaded. They are also classified as firearms because
they fire projectiles.

One attempt to overcome the limitations of tasers uses a stream of
liquid that hits a victim with a 10 000-volt charge. This causes painful
muscle spasms in the victim. But the liquid can split into droplets,
breaking the electrical connection, and is hard to aim. Herr's invention
uses lasers to generate intense beams of ultraviolet light.

These create a path of ionised air down which precisely modulated
electrical current is sent. The currents can be manipulated to cause
painful contractions, stun a victim painlessly, or induce a heart
attack. It has a far longer range than the taser-over 100 metres-and the
beam can penetrate clothing. The phaser can also fire many shots before
it needs reloading.

Using ultraviolet light avoids legal restrictions on weapons that blind
with laser light, since it would take several minutes to damage the
retina with the wavelength of light used by the device.

A hand-held version of the phaser is not yet available because the
argon-fluoride discharge-pumped excimer laser it uses is as big as a
kitchen table. Herr is hoping that others will find ways to make his
device smaller and more powerful, as well as improve its range. He says
that any technically competent person would be able to build a phaser.

Steve Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American
Scientists in Washington, says: 'At first glance it seems incredible,
and rather disturbing.'

New Scientist
Volume  156.   Issue   2106.

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Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
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