Which Sci-Fi work first showed weapon of galactic-scale mass destruction?





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9















Currently, I have two examples in my mind:




  • Halo (Halo video game series; 2001): Can destroy all sentient life within three galactic radii


  • The Moment/ Eye of Discord/ Galaxy Eater (Doctor Who (2005) TV series; 2013): Can destroy entire galaxy within a moment



Which Sci-Fi work first showed weapon of galactic-scale mass destruction?










share|improve this question


















  • 1





    Based on your examples, are you looking for galactic-scale loss of life, or just general destruction?

    – Kozaky
    12 hours ago











  • @Kozaky Both. That's why I gave both types of examples.

    – Avenge The Fallen
    12 hours ago











  • Space-time paradoxes that can destroy the universe would they be applicable?

    – Kami
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    Although it's not the first, Lexx in 1998 had epic badguy Mantrid who built an army of von Neumann probes which quickly climb the Kardashev scale in their self-replication efforts, eventually resorting to star lifting for their raw materials, and converting all the universe's matter into self-replicas. The probes then converged on our heroes, collapsing the (light) universe into a singularity (through which they luckily escape to the dark universe).

    – J...
    10 hours ago








  • 2





    The concept might’ve been taken from religious apocalyptic literature, which is also set in the future and ends with the destruction of the entire universe. There are examples of that as early as 200 BCE.

    – Davislor
    3 hours ago




















9















Currently, I have two examples in my mind:




  • Halo (Halo video game series; 2001): Can destroy all sentient life within three galactic radii


  • The Moment/ Eye of Discord/ Galaxy Eater (Doctor Who (2005) TV series; 2013): Can destroy entire galaxy within a moment



Which Sci-Fi work first showed weapon of galactic-scale mass destruction?










share|improve this question


















  • 1





    Based on your examples, are you looking for galactic-scale loss of life, or just general destruction?

    – Kozaky
    12 hours ago











  • @Kozaky Both. That's why I gave both types of examples.

    – Avenge The Fallen
    12 hours ago











  • Space-time paradoxes that can destroy the universe would they be applicable?

    – Kami
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    Although it's not the first, Lexx in 1998 had epic badguy Mantrid who built an army of von Neumann probes which quickly climb the Kardashev scale in their self-replication efforts, eventually resorting to star lifting for their raw materials, and converting all the universe's matter into self-replicas. The probes then converged on our heroes, collapsing the (light) universe into a singularity (through which they luckily escape to the dark universe).

    – J...
    10 hours ago








  • 2





    The concept might’ve been taken from religious apocalyptic literature, which is also set in the future and ends with the destruction of the entire universe. There are examples of that as early as 200 BCE.

    – Davislor
    3 hours ago
















9












9








9


2






Currently, I have two examples in my mind:




  • Halo (Halo video game series; 2001): Can destroy all sentient life within three galactic radii


  • The Moment/ Eye of Discord/ Galaxy Eater (Doctor Who (2005) TV series; 2013): Can destroy entire galaxy within a moment



Which Sci-Fi work first showed weapon of galactic-scale mass destruction?










share|improve this question














Currently, I have two examples in my mind:




  • Halo (Halo video game series; 2001): Can destroy all sentient life within three galactic radii


  • The Moment/ Eye of Discord/ Galaxy Eater (Doctor Who (2005) TV series; 2013): Can destroy entire galaxy within a moment



Which Sci-Fi work first showed weapon of galactic-scale mass destruction?







history-of






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 13 hours ago









Avenge The FallenAvenge The Fallen

56.8k94438850




56.8k94438850








  • 1





    Based on your examples, are you looking for galactic-scale loss of life, or just general destruction?

    – Kozaky
    12 hours ago











  • @Kozaky Both. That's why I gave both types of examples.

    – Avenge The Fallen
    12 hours ago











  • Space-time paradoxes that can destroy the universe would they be applicable?

    – Kami
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    Although it's not the first, Lexx in 1998 had epic badguy Mantrid who built an army of von Neumann probes which quickly climb the Kardashev scale in their self-replication efforts, eventually resorting to star lifting for their raw materials, and converting all the universe's matter into self-replicas. The probes then converged on our heroes, collapsing the (light) universe into a singularity (through which they luckily escape to the dark universe).

    – J...
    10 hours ago








  • 2





    The concept might’ve been taken from religious apocalyptic literature, which is also set in the future and ends with the destruction of the entire universe. There are examples of that as early as 200 BCE.

    – Davislor
    3 hours ago
















  • 1





    Based on your examples, are you looking for galactic-scale loss of life, or just general destruction?

    – Kozaky
    12 hours ago











  • @Kozaky Both. That's why I gave both types of examples.

    – Avenge The Fallen
    12 hours ago











  • Space-time paradoxes that can destroy the universe would they be applicable?

    – Kami
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    Although it's not the first, Lexx in 1998 had epic badguy Mantrid who built an army of von Neumann probes which quickly climb the Kardashev scale in their self-replication efforts, eventually resorting to star lifting for their raw materials, and converting all the universe's matter into self-replicas. The probes then converged on our heroes, collapsing the (light) universe into a singularity (through which they luckily escape to the dark universe).

    – J...
    10 hours ago








  • 2





    The concept might’ve been taken from religious apocalyptic literature, which is also set in the future and ends with the destruction of the entire universe. There are examples of that as early as 200 BCE.

    – Davislor
    3 hours ago










1




1





Based on your examples, are you looking for galactic-scale loss of life, or just general destruction?

– Kozaky
12 hours ago





Based on your examples, are you looking for galactic-scale loss of life, or just general destruction?

– Kozaky
12 hours ago













@Kozaky Both. That's why I gave both types of examples.

– Avenge The Fallen
12 hours ago





@Kozaky Both. That's why I gave both types of examples.

– Avenge The Fallen
12 hours ago













Space-time paradoxes that can destroy the universe would they be applicable?

– Kami
12 hours ago





Space-time paradoxes that can destroy the universe would they be applicable?

– Kami
12 hours ago




1




1





Although it's not the first, Lexx in 1998 had epic badguy Mantrid who built an army of von Neumann probes which quickly climb the Kardashev scale in their self-replication efforts, eventually resorting to star lifting for their raw materials, and converting all the universe's matter into self-replicas. The probes then converged on our heroes, collapsing the (light) universe into a singularity (through which they luckily escape to the dark universe).

– J...
10 hours ago







Although it's not the first, Lexx in 1998 had epic badguy Mantrid who built an army of von Neumann probes which quickly climb the Kardashev scale in their self-replication efforts, eventually resorting to star lifting for their raw materials, and converting all the universe's matter into self-replicas. The probes then converged on our heroes, collapsing the (light) universe into a singularity (through which they luckily escape to the dark universe).

– J...
10 hours ago






2




2





The concept might’ve been taken from religious apocalyptic literature, which is also set in the future and ends with the destruction of the entire universe. There are examples of that as early as 200 BCE.

– Davislor
3 hours ago







The concept might’ve been taken from religious apocalyptic literature, which is also set in the future and ends with the destruction of the entire universe. There are examples of that as early as 200 BCE.

– Davislor
3 hours ago












5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes


















18














1930: "The Triple Ray", a short story by R. V. Happel in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930, available at the Internet Archive.



Plot summary by Everett F. Bleiler in Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years:




Professor Lucius Raymond is the inventor [of] two rays, the Twin Ray and the Triple Ray. The famed Twin Ray, a combination of ultraviolet and infrared, amounts to a disintegrator. Its source is an adapted Crookes' tube, with an unmentioned radioactive substance. A demonstration of this ray to the Germans leads to their retreat from Paris. (While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.) This ray, in addition to being the prize weapon in the American arsenal, has extensive peaceful uses.

The Triple Ray, which destroys atoms, has been discovered almost by accident. On the single occasion that it is used, it drills a hole through a hill. More, it continues on and slices the top off a nearby mountain. Then it leaves the solar system and disrupts several stars. And it continues, moving faster than light. Since the universe is finite and space is curved, the ray will continue on around the universe, spreading, and return to disintegrate Earth. It will eventually devour the whole universe.




Excerpt from the story:




My curiosity vastly aroused by his letter, I took the first opportunity to see my old friend and learn what discovery had so upset him. Of the truth of his contentions I will say nothing other than that in so far as I was able to follow him in his deductions and experiments every fact seems to bear out his theory. His first discovery at the observatory was that the tremendous energy released from the mountain lodge, while he was attempting to measure the speed of the Triple Ray, had formed into an interstellar ocean of destruction, rushing madly through outer space, engulfing all matter it encountered and converting it into its own destructive nature.

It was, indeed, in the very same lodge only a few days before his death that Lucius, flat on his back from two strokes which left him paralyzed below the waist, slowly and carefully explained to me fully for the first time the exact nature of his discoveries at Dudley. I will give this in his own words, since it is thus that I best remember what he said to me.

[. . . .]

"It is for this reason that I cannot say how far in space the thing has traveled nor where it may be now. But this I do know and have proven many times over. The ray is traveling, not in a straight line after all, but instead in a closed circle, and must by every law of mathematics return again to its beginning. And since I have been able to learn by experiment that it renews and increases itself by that which it destroys, I have no particle of doubt in my mind but that on its return to the earth our planet will be utterly annihilated.

"The circle is vast, I know, for it was months after I first began to trace its course on an astronomical map that I was able to detect the slight deviation of the arc. It must travel the very fringes of the known stellar spaces where it takes light a thousand million years but to cross. Yet so terrific is the ray's speed that it may carry it round and back, I fear, in a lifetime; perhaps less. And no sight of its return will give warning, since it precedes its own light as lightning seems to precede thunder. It is, in short, a natural force which will surely ride the universe until all active matter has come within its circle, as it must sometime, and been destroyed. And even then it will circle on until all time has ceased to be. Perhaps it will finally be the birth itself of a new and different universe. I do not know.







share|improve this answer
























  • It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

    – Jimmy M.
    7 hours ago






  • 12





    @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

    – user14111
    7 hours ago













  • Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

    – Jimmy M.
    7 hours ago













  • Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    1 hour ago



















12














Sounds like space opera to me! E. E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark DuQuesne, 1965:




Dorothy’s face began to pale. “By that analogy you mean destroy the
whole galaxy
! How can such a thing be possible? It can’t possibly be
possible!”



He told her how the operation could be performed. That apparatus that
the Barlo women had dredged up out of nowhere had a lot of capabilities
that did not appear on the surface. Blackie DuQuesne had perceived one
set of those possibilities, and he and Blackie had been working on the
hardware. They were calling it Project Rho.




The effects of Project Rho were to destroy two galaxies. One galaxy was destroyed by removing most of its stars:




In Galaxy A, where billions of suns had gone through
the stellar cycle of evolution for billions of years, there was scarcely
a corporal’s guard of primaries left. It was a strange, almost a
frightening sight. For with the loss of the suns the composition of the
galaxy had changed to something never before seen in all the plenum of
universes. Nearly every sun had had planets; nearly every planet
remained behind when its sun was stolen. Now they roamed at
random—uncontrolled, barren, uninhabited—lacking not only the light
and heat of their primaries, but freed from their gravitational reins as
well.




The stars from galaxy A were teleported to the galaxy of the Chlorans, which in turn caused all its stars to explode:




Thus millions
upon millions of Chloran planets were destroyed without any intelligent
entity either giving or receiving warning that an attack was being made....



They died in
uncounted trillions. The greeny-yellow soup that served them for air
boiled away. Their halogenous flesh was charred, baked and desiccated in
the split-second of the passing of the wave front from each exploding
double star, moments before their planets themselves began to seethe and
boil. Many died unaware. Most died fighting. Some died in terrible,
frantic efforts to escape...



But they all died.







share|improve this answer































    4














    In the Star Trek episode "The Alternative Factor", 30 March 1967, A highly unscientific threat to destroy our entire universe plus an alternate one was revealed, destruction on a scale that makes mere galaxy-wide destruction seem infinitesimal:




    KIRK: What's going on? This leaping from universe to universe. This wild talk about a murdering creature who destroys civilisations What's the purpose?



    SPOCK: Jim, madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal. He must be stopped, held. Destroyed if necessary.



    KIRK: I don't follow you.



    SPOCK: Two parallel universes project this. One positive, the other negative. Or, more specifically, one matter, the other antimatter.



    KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out. violently.



    SPOCK: Precisely. Under certain conditions, when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet.



    KIRK: Like Lazarus. Identical. Like both Lazarus', only one is matter and the other antimatter. If they meet.



    SPOCK: Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation.



    KIRK: Of everything that exists, everywhere.




    And when Kirk meets the sane Lazarus:




    KIRK: Antimatter?



    LAZARUS: Here, yes.



    KIRK: And if identical particles meet



    LAZARUS: The end of everything. Civilisation, existence, all gone. I tried to stop him, Captain. That's why I took your dilithium crystals.




    Of course "The Alternative Factor" was aired in 1967, after Skylark DuQuesne (1965) and The Star Kings (1947) were published.






    share|improve this answer































      2














      Possibility might be a weapon in Edmond Hamilton's novel "The Star Kings." This weapon was the "Disruptor," able to annhiliate vast regions of space itself and hence all matter within it.






      share|improve this answer



















      • 5





        The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

        – M. A. Golding
        10 hours ago













      • What was its scale?

        – Avenge The Fallen
        9 hours ago






      • 2





        @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

        – LAK
        9 hours ago





















      -3














      =>There is a "curse" that could destroy the entire fictional civilization in a book called "The Magician's Nephew"(1955) by C.S. Lewis.




      The Deplorable Word, as used in The Magician's Nephew, by author C. S.
      Lewis is a magical curse which ends all life in the fictional world
      of Charn except that of the one who speaks it.




      =>There was also this 'The Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator' in the classic Bugs
      Bunny short Haredevil Hare in 1948. Marvin the Martian wanted to use it to blow up
      Earth because, as he said, "It obstructs my view of Venus". The explosive was in the form of a small red stick that resembled Dynamite that was screwed into a large telescope-like machine.



      =>In E. E. Smith's The Skylark of Space series(written between 1915-1921) various planet-killers are used or discussed. Throwing planets and moons out of orbit, incredibly high-yield atomic or copper bombs, near-instantaneous dematerialization of physical objects and the teleporting of close to fifty billion stars in order to wipe out a Galaxy-wide alien civilization are all used.






      share|improve this answer





















      • 3





        only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

        – M. A. Golding
        10 hours ago








      • 2





        As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

        – Mark Beadles
        10 hours ago








      • 1





        One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

        – StarHawk
        5 hours ago












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      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

      votes








      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      18














      1930: "The Triple Ray", a short story by R. V. Happel in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930, available at the Internet Archive.



      Plot summary by Everett F. Bleiler in Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years:




      Professor Lucius Raymond is the inventor [of] two rays, the Twin Ray and the Triple Ray. The famed Twin Ray, a combination of ultraviolet and infrared, amounts to a disintegrator. Its source is an adapted Crookes' tube, with an unmentioned radioactive substance. A demonstration of this ray to the Germans leads to their retreat from Paris. (While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.) This ray, in addition to being the prize weapon in the American arsenal, has extensive peaceful uses.

      The Triple Ray, which destroys atoms, has been discovered almost by accident. On the single occasion that it is used, it drills a hole through a hill. More, it continues on and slices the top off a nearby mountain. Then it leaves the solar system and disrupts several stars. And it continues, moving faster than light. Since the universe is finite and space is curved, the ray will continue on around the universe, spreading, and return to disintegrate Earth. It will eventually devour the whole universe.




      Excerpt from the story:




      My curiosity vastly aroused by his letter, I took the first opportunity to see my old friend and learn what discovery had so upset him. Of the truth of his contentions I will say nothing other than that in so far as I was able to follow him in his deductions and experiments every fact seems to bear out his theory. His first discovery at the observatory was that the tremendous energy released from the mountain lodge, while he was attempting to measure the speed of the Triple Ray, had formed into an interstellar ocean of destruction, rushing madly through outer space, engulfing all matter it encountered and converting it into its own destructive nature.

      It was, indeed, in the very same lodge only a few days before his death that Lucius, flat on his back from two strokes which left him paralyzed below the waist, slowly and carefully explained to me fully for the first time the exact nature of his discoveries at Dudley. I will give this in his own words, since it is thus that I best remember what he said to me.

      [. . . .]

      "It is for this reason that I cannot say how far in space the thing has traveled nor where it may be now. But this I do know and have proven many times over. The ray is traveling, not in a straight line after all, but instead in a closed circle, and must by every law of mathematics return again to its beginning. And since I have been able to learn by experiment that it renews and increases itself by that which it destroys, I have no particle of doubt in my mind but that on its return to the earth our planet will be utterly annihilated.

      "The circle is vast, I know, for it was months after I first began to trace its course on an astronomical map that I was able to detect the slight deviation of the arc. It must travel the very fringes of the known stellar spaces where it takes light a thousand million years but to cross. Yet so terrific is the ray's speed that it may carry it round and back, I fear, in a lifetime; perhaps less. And no sight of its return will give warning, since it precedes its own light as lightning seems to precede thunder. It is, in short, a natural force which will surely ride the universe until all active matter has come within its circle, as it must sometime, and been destroyed. And even then it will circle on until all time has ceased to be. Perhaps it will finally be the birth itself of a new and different universe. I do not know.







      share|improve this answer
























      • It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago






      • 12





        @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

        – user14111
        7 hours ago













      • Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago













      • Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

        – Lightness Races in Orbit
        1 hour ago
















      18














      1930: "The Triple Ray", a short story by R. V. Happel in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930, available at the Internet Archive.



      Plot summary by Everett F. Bleiler in Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years:




      Professor Lucius Raymond is the inventor [of] two rays, the Twin Ray and the Triple Ray. The famed Twin Ray, a combination of ultraviolet and infrared, amounts to a disintegrator. Its source is an adapted Crookes' tube, with an unmentioned radioactive substance. A demonstration of this ray to the Germans leads to their retreat from Paris. (While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.) This ray, in addition to being the prize weapon in the American arsenal, has extensive peaceful uses.

      The Triple Ray, which destroys atoms, has been discovered almost by accident. On the single occasion that it is used, it drills a hole through a hill. More, it continues on and slices the top off a nearby mountain. Then it leaves the solar system and disrupts several stars. And it continues, moving faster than light. Since the universe is finite and space is curved, the ray will continue on around the universe, spreading, and return to disintegrate Earth. It will eventually devour the whole universe.




      Excerpt from the story:




      My curiosity vastly aroused by his letter, I took the first opportunity to see my old friend and learn what discovery had so upset him. Of the truth of his contentions I will say nothing other than that in so far as I was able to follow him in his deductions and experiments every fact seems to bear out his theory. His first discovery at the observatory was that the tremendous energy released from the mountain lodge, while he was attempting to measure the speed of the Triple Ray, had formed into an interstellar ocean of destruction, rushing madly through outer space, engulfing all matter it encountered and converting it into its own destructive nature.

      It was, indeed, in the very same lodge only a few days before his death that Lucius, flat on his back from two strokes which left him paralyzed below the waist, slowly and carefully explained to me fully for the first time the exact nature of his discoveries at Dudley. I will give this in his own words, since it is thus that I best remember what he said to me.

      [. . . .]

      "It is for this reason that I cannot say how far in space the thing has traveled nor where it may be now. But this I do know and have proven many times over. The ray is traveling, not in a straight line after all, but instead in a closed circle, and must by every law of mathematics return again to its beginning. And since I have been able to learn by experiment that it renews and increases itself by that which it destroys, I have no particle of doubt in my mind but that on its return to the earth our planet will be utterly annihilated.

      "The circle is vast, I know, for it was months after I first began to trace its course on an astronomical map that I was able to detect the slight deviation of the arc. It must travel the very fringes of the known stellar spaces where it takes light a thousand million years but to cross. Yet so terrific is the ray's speed that it may carry it round and back, I fear, in a lifetime; perhaps less. And no sight of its return will give warning, since it precedes its own light as lightning seems to precede thunder. It is, in short, a natural force which will surely ride the universe until all active matter has come within its circle, as it must sometime, and been destroyed. And even then it will circle on until all time has ceased to be. Perhaps it will finally be the birth itself of a new and different universe. I do not know.







      share|improve this answer
























      • It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago






      • 12





        @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

        – user14111
        7 hours ago













      • Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago













      • Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

        – Lightness Races in Orbit
        1 hour ago














      18












      18








      18







      1930: "The Triple Ray", a short story by R. V. Happel in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930, available at the Internet Archive.



      Plot summary by Everett F. Bleiler in Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years:




      Professor Lucius Raymond is the inventor [of] two rays, the Twin Ray and the Triple Ray. The famed Twin Ray, a combination of ultraviolet and infrared, amounts to a disintegrator. Its source is an adapted Crookes' tube, with an unmentioned radioactive substance. A demonstration of this ray to the Germans leads to their retreat from Paris. (While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.) This ray, in addition to being the prize weapon in the American arsenal, has extensive peaceful uses.

      The Triple Ray, which destroys atoms, has been discovered almost by accident. On the single occasion that it is used, it drills a hole through a hill. More, it continues on and slices the top off a nearby mountain. Then it leaves the solar system and disrupts several stars. And it continues, moving faster than light. Since the universe is finite and space is curved, the ray will continue on around the universe, spreading, and return to disintegrate Earth. It will eventually devour the whole universe.




      Excerpt from the story:




      My curiosity vastly aroused by his letter, I took the first opportunity to see my old friend and learn what discovery had so upset him. Of the truth of his contentions I will say nothing other than that in so far as I was able to follow him in his deductions and experiments every fact seems to bear out his theory. His first discovery at the observatory was that the tremendous energy released from the mountain lodge, while he was attempting to measure the speed of the Triple Ray, had formed into an interstellar ocean of destruction, rushing madly through outer space, engulfing all matter it encountered and converting it into its own destructive nature.

      It was, indeed, in the very same lodge only a few days before his death that Lucius, flat on his back from two strokes which left him paralyzed below the waist, slowly and carefully explained to me fully for the first time the exact nature of his discoveries at Dudley. I will give this in his own words, since it is thus that I best remember what he said to me.

      [. . . .]

      "It is for this reason that I cannot say how far in space the thing has traveled nor where it may be now. But this I do know and have proven many times over. The ray is traveling, not in a straight line after all, but instead in a closed circle, and must by every law of mathematics return again to its beginning. And since I have been able to learn by experiment that it renews and increases itself by that which it destroys, I have no particle of doubt in my mind but that on its return to the earth our planet will be utterly annihilated.

      "The circle is vast, I know, for it was months after I first began to trace its course on an astronomical map that I was able to detect the slight deviation of the arc. It must travel the very fringes of the known stellar spaces where it takes light a thousand million years but to cross. Yet so terrific is the ray's speed that it may carry it round and back, I fear, in a lifetime; perhaps less. And no sight of its return will give warning, since it precedes its own light as lightning seems to precede thunder. It is, in short, a natural force which will surely ride the universe until all active matter has come within its circle, as it must sometime, and been destroyed. And even then it will circle on until all time has ceased to be. Perhaps it will finally be the birth itself of a new and different universe. I do not know.







      share|improve this answer













      1930: "The Triple Ray", a short story by R. V. Happel in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1930, available at the Internet Archive.



      Plot summary by Everett F. Bleiler in Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years:




      Professor Lucius Raymond is the inventor [of] two rays, the Twin Ray and the Triple Ray. The famed Twin Ray, a combination of ultraviolet and infrared, amounts to a disintegrator. Its source is an adapted Crookes' tube, with an unmentioned radioactive substance. A demonstration of this ray to the Germans leads to their retreat from Paris. (While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.) This ray, in addition to being the prize weapon in the American arsenal, has extensive peaceful uses.

      The Triple Ray, which destroys atoms, has been discovered almost by accident. On the single occasion that it is used, it drills a hole through a hill. More, it continues on and slices the top off a nearby mountain. Then it leaves the solar system and disrupts several stars. And it continues, moving faster than light. Since the universe is finite and space is curved, the ray will continue on around the universe, spreading, and return to disintegrate Earth. It will eventually devour the whole universe.




      Excerpt from the story:




      My curiosity vastly aroused by his letter, I took the first opportunity to see my old friend and learn what discovery had so upset him. Of the truth of his contentions I will say nothing other than that in so far as I was able to follow him in his deductions and experiments every fact seems to bear out his theory. His first discovery at the observatory was that the tremendous energy released from the mountain lodge, while he was attempting to measure the speed of the Triple Ray, had formed into an interstellar ocean of destruction, rushing madly through outer space, engulfing all matter it encountered and converting it into its own destructive nature.

      It was, indeed, in the very same lodge only a few days before his death that Lucius, flat on his back from two strokes which left him paralyzed below the waist, slowly and carefully explained to me fully for the first time the exact nature of his discoveries at Dudley. I will give this in his own words, since it is thus that I best remember what he said to me.

      [. . . .]

      "It is for this reason that I cannot say how far in space the thing has traveled nor where it may be now. But this I do know and have proven many times over. The ray is traveling, not in a straight line after all, but instead in a closed circle, and must by every law of mathematics return again to its beginning. And since I have been able to learn by experiment that it renews and increases itself by that which it destroys, I have no particle of doubt in my mind but that on its return to the earth our planet will be utterly annihilated.

      "The circle is vast, I know, for it was months after I first began to trace its course on an astronomical map that I was able to detect the slight deviation of the arc. It must travel the very fringes of the known stellar spaces where it takes light a thousand million years but to cross. Yet so terrific is the ray's speed that it may carry it round and back, I fear, in a lifetime; perhaps less. And no sight of its return will give warning, since it precedes its own light as lightning seems to precede thunder. It is, in short, a natural force which will surely ride the universe until all active matter has come within its circle, as it must sometime, and been destroyed. And even then it will circle on until all time has ceased to be. Perhaps it will finally be the birth itself of a new and different universe. I do not know.








      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered 9 hours ago









      user14111user14111

      105k6406524




      105k6406524













      • It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago






      • 12





        @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

        – user14111
        7 hours ago













      • Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago













      • Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

        – Lightness Races in Orbit
        1 hour ago



















      • It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago






      • 12





        @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

        – user14111
        7 hours ago













      • Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

        – Jimmy M.
        7 hours ago













      • Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

        – Lightness Races in Orbit
        1 hour ago

















      It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

      – Jimmy M.
      7 hours ago





      It's really bothering me that whoever wrote that plot summary stated "(While the author is not clear, this seems to refer to a second world war.)" and missed the story having been published in 1930, nine years before World War II would even begin.

      – Jimmy M.
      7 hours ago




      12




      12





      @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

      – user14111
      7 hours ago







      @JimmyM. It shouldn't bother you. A second world war, not the second world war. People were speculating and talking about a possible second world war from the time the first one ended. Here's a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary: [1930 H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading) Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]. For that matter, I've been reading stories about World War III long before the start of the actual World War III. So I donbt very much that E. F. Bleiler, who wrote that summary, overlooked the fact that the story antedated WWII.

      – user14111
      7 hours ago















      Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

      – Jimmy M.
      7 hours ago







      Fair points, especially concerning the article usage!

      – Jimmy M.
      7 hours ago















      Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

      – Lightness Races in Orbit
      1 hour ago





      Indeed, we read and watch stories about space wars all the time, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) we have not yet experienced one. A strange concern, to say the least.

      – Lightness Races in Orbit
      1 hour ago













      12














      Sounds like space opera to me! E. E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark DuQuesne, 1965:




      Dorothy’s face began to pale. “By that analogy you mean destroy the
      whole galaxy
      ! How can such a thing be possible? It can’t possibly be
      possible!”



      He told her how the operation could be performed. That apparatus that
      the Barlo women had dredged up out of nowhere had a lot of capabilities
      that did not appear on the surface. Blackie DuQuesne had perceived one
      set of those possibilities, and he and Blackie had been working on the
      hardware. They were calling it Project Rho.




      The effects of Project Rho were to destroy two galaxies. One galaxy was destroyed by removing most of its stars:




      In Galaxy A, where billions of suns had gone through
      the stellar cycle of evolution for billions of years, there was scarcely
      a corporal’s guard of primaries left. It was a strange, almost a
      frightening sight. For with the loss of the suns the composition of the
      galaxy had changed to something never before seen in all the plenum of
      universes. Nearly every sun had had planets; nearly every planet
      remained behind when its sun was stolen. Now they roamed at
      random—uncontrolled, barren, uninhabited—lacking not only the light
      and heat of their primaries, but freed from their gravitational reins as
      well.




      The stars from galaxy A were teleported to the galaxy of the Chlorans, which in turn caused all its stars to explode:




      Thus millions
      upon millions of Chloran planets were destroyed without any intelligent
      entity either giving or receiving warning that an attack was being made....



      They died in
      uncounted trillions. The greeny-yellow soup that served them for air
      boiled away. Their halogenous flesh was charred, baked and desiccated in
      the split-second of the passing of the wave front from each exploding
      double star, moments before their planets themselves began to seethe and
      boil. Many died unaware. Most died fighting. Some died in terrible,
      frantic efforts to escape...



      But they all died.







      share|improve this answer




























        12














        Sounds like space opera to me! E. E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark DuQuesne, 1965:




        Dorothy’s face began to pale. “By that analogy you mean destroy the
        whole galaxy
        ! How can such a thing be possible? It can’t possibly be
        possible!”



        He told her how the operation could be performed. That apparatus that
        the Barlo women had dredged up out of nowhere had a lot of capabilities
        that did not appear on the surface. Blackie DuQuesne had perceived one
        set of those possibilities, and he and Blackie had been working on the
        hardware. They were calling it Project Rho.




        The effects of Project Rho were to destroy two galaxies. One galaxy was destroyed by removing most of its stars:




        In Galaxy A, where billions of suns had gone through
        the stellar cycle of evolution for billions of years, there was scarcely
        a corporal’s guard of primaries left. It was a strange, almost a
        frightening sight. For with the loss of the suns the composition of the
        galaxy had changed to something never before seen in all the plenum of
        universes. Nearly every sun had had planets; nearly every planet
        remained behind when its sun was stolen. Now they roamed at
        random—uncontrolled, barren, uninhabited—lacking not only the light
        and heat of their primaries, but freed from their gravitational reins as
        well.




        The stars from galaxy A were teleported to the galaxy of the Chlorans, which in turn caused all its stars to explode:




        Thus millions
        upon millions of Chloran planets were destroyed without any intelligent
        entity either giving or receiving warning that an attack was being made....



        They died in
        uncounted trillions. The greeny-yellow soup that served them for air
        boiled away. Their halogenous flesh was charred, baked and desiccated in
        the split-second of the passing of the wave front from each exploding
        double star, moments before their planets themselves began to seethe and
        boil. Many died unaware. Most died fighting. Some died in terrible,
        frantic efforts to escape...



        But they all died.







        share|improve this answer


























          12












          12








          12







          Sounds like space opera to me! E. E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark DuQuesne, 1965:




          Dorothy’s face began to pale. “By that analogy you mean destroy the
          whole galaxy
          ! How can such a thing be possible? It can’t possibly be
          possible!”



          He told her how the operation could be performed. That apparatus that
          the Barlo women had dredged up out of nowhere had a lot of capabilities
          that did not appear on the surface. Blackie DuQuesne had perceived one
          set of those possibilities, and he and Blackie had been working on the
          hardware. They were calling it Project Rho.




          The effects of Project Rho were to destroy two galaxies. One galaxy was destroyed by removing most of its stars:




          In Galaxy A, where billions of suns had gone through
          the stellar cycle of evolution for billions of years, there was scarcely
          a corporal’s guard of primaries left. It was a strange, almost a
          frightening sight. For with the loss of the suns the composition of the
          galaxy had changed to something never before seen in all the plenum of
          universes. Nearly every sun had had planets; nearly every planet
          remained behind when its sun was stolen. Now they roamed at
          random—uncontrolled, barren, uninhabited—lacking not only the light
          and heat of their primaries, but freed from their gravitational reins as
          well.




          The stars from galaxy A were teleported to the galaxy of the Chlorans, which in turn caused all its stars to explode:




          Thus millions
          upon millions of Chloran planets were destroyed without any intelligent
          entity either giving or receiving warning that an attack was being made....



          They died in
          uncounted trillions. The greeny-yellow soup that served them for air
          boiled away. Their halogenous flesh was charred, baked and desiccated in
          the split-second of the passing of the wave front from each exploding
          double star, moments before their planets themselves began to seethe and
          boil. Many died unaware. Most died fighting. Some died in terrible,
          frantic efforts to escape...



          But they all died.







          share|improve this answer













          Sounds like space opera to me! E. E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark DuQuesne, 1965:




          Dorothy’s face began to pale. “By that analogy you mean destroy the
          whole galaxy
          ! How can such a thing be possible? It can’t possibly be
          possible!”



          He told her how the operation could be performed. That apparatus that
          the Barlo women had dredged up out of nowhere had a lot of capabilities
          that did not appear on the surface. Blackie DuQuesne had perceived one
          set of those possibilities, and he and Blackie had been working on the
          hardware. They were calling it Project Rho.




          The effects of Project Rho were to destroy two galaxies. One galaxy was destroyed by removing most of its stars:




          In Galaxy A, where billions of suns had gone through
          the stellar cycle of evolution for billions of years, there was scarcely
          a corporal’s guard of primaries left. It was a strange, almost a
          frightening sight. For with the loss of the suns the composition of the
          galaxy had changed to something never before seen in all the plenum of
          universes. Nearly every sun had had planets; nearly every planet
          remained behind when its sun was stolen. Now they roamed at
          random—uncontrolled, barren, uninhabited—lacking not only the light
          and heat of their primaries, but freed from their gravitational reins as
          well.




          The stars from galaxy A were teleported to the galaxy of the Chlorans, which in turn caused all its stars to explode:




          Thus millions
          upon millions of Chloran planets were destroyed without any intelligent
          entity either giving or receiving warning that an attack was being made....



          They died in
          uncounted trillions. The greeny-yellow soup that served them for air
          boiled away. Their halogenous flesh was charred, baked and desiccated in
          the split-second of the passing of the wave front from each exploding
          double star, moments before their planets themselves began to seethe and
          boil. Many died unaware. Most died fighting. Some died in terrible,
          frantic efforts to escape...



          But they all died.








          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 12 hours ago









          Mark BeadlesMark Beadles

          8,71523555




          8,71523555























              4














              In the Star Trek episode "The Alternative Factor", 30 March 1967, A highly unscientific threat to destroy our entire universe plus an alternate one was revealed, destruction on a scale that makes mere galaxy-wide destruction seem infinitesimal:




              KIRK: What's going on? This leaping from universe to universe. This wild talk about a murdering creature who destroys civilisations What's the purpose?



              SPOCK: Jim, madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal. He must be stopped, held. Destroyed if necessary.



              KIRK: I don't follow you.



              SPOCK: Two parallel universes project this. One positive, the other negative. Or, more specifically, one matter, the other antimatter.



              KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out. violently.



              SPOCK: Precisely. Under certain conditions, when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet.



              KIRK: Like Lazarus. Identical. Like both Lazarus', only one is matter and the other antimatter. If they meet.



              SPOCK: Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation.



              KIRK: Of everything that exists, everywhere.




              And when Kirk meets the sane Lazarus:




              KIRK: Antimatter?



              LAZARUS: Here, yes.



              KIRK: And if identical particles meet



              LAZARUS: The end of everything. Civilisation, existence, all gone. I tried to stop him, Captain. That's why I took your dilithium crystals.




              Of course "The Alternative Factor" was aired in 1967, after Skylark DuQuesne (1965) and The Star Kings (1947) were published.






              share|improve this answer




























                4














                In the Star Trek episode "The Alternative Factor", 30 March 1967, A highly unscientific threat to destroy our entire universe plus an alternate one was revealed, destruction on a scale that makes mere galaxy-wide destruction seem infinitesimal:




                KIRK: What's going on? This leaping from universe to universe. This wild talk about a murdering creature who destroys civilisations What's the purpose?



                SPOCK: Jim, madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal. He must be stopped, held. Destroyed if necessary.



                KIRK: I don't follow you.



                SPOCK: Two parallel universes project this. One positive, the other negative. Or, more specifically, one matter, the other antimatter.



                KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out. violently.



                SPOCK: Precisely. Under certain conditions, when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet.



                KIRK: Like Lazarus. Identical. Like both Lazarus', only one is matter and the other antimatter. If they meet.



                SPOCK: Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation.



                KIRK: Of everything that exists, everywhere.




                And when Kirk meets the sane Lazarus:




                KIRK: Antimatter?



                LAZARUS: Here, yes.



                KIRK: And if identical particles meet



                LAZARUS: The end of everything. Civilisation, existence, all gone. I tried to stop him, Captain. That's why I took your dilithium crystals.




                Of course "The Alternative Factor" was aired in 1967, after Skylark DuQuesne (1965) and The Star Kings (1947) were published.






                share|improve this answer


























                  4












                  4








                  4







                  In the Star Trek episode "The Alternative Factor", 30 March 1967, A highly unscientific threat to destroy our entire universe plus an alternate one was revealed, destruction on a scale that makes mere galaxy-wide destruction seem infinitesimal:




                  KIRK: What's going on? This leaping from universe to universe. This wild talk about a murdering creature who destroys civilisations What's the purpose?



                  SPOCK: Jim, madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal. He must be stopped, held. Destroyed if necessary.



                  KIRK: I don't follow you.



                  SPOCK: Two parallel universes project this. One positive, the other negative. Or, more specifically, one matter, the other antimatter.



                  KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out. violently.



                  SPOCK: Precisely. Under certain conditions, when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet.



                  KIRK: Like Lazarus. Identical. Like both Lazarus', only one is matter and the other antimatter. If they meet.



                  SPOCK: Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation.



                  KIRK: Of everything that exists, everywhere.




                  And when Kirk meets the sane Lazarus:




                  KIRK: Antimatter?



                  LAZARUS: Here, yes.



                  KIRK: And if identical particles meet



                  LAZARUS: The end of everything. Civilisation, existence, all gone. I tried to stop him, Captain. That's why I took your dilithium crystals.




                  Of course "The Alternative Factor" was aired in 1967, after Skylark DuQuesne (1965) and The Star Kings (1947) were published.






                  share|improve this answer













                  In the Star Trek episode "The Alternative Factor", 30 March 1967, A highly unscientific threat to destroy our entire universe plus an alternate one was revealed, destruction on a scale that makes mere galaxy-wide destruction seem infinitesimal:




                  KIRK: What's going on? This leaping from universe to universe. This wild talk about a murdering creature who destroys civilisations What's the purpose?



                  SPOCK: Jim, madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal. He must be stopped, held. Destroyed if necessary.



                  KIRK: I don't follow you.



                  SPOCK: Two parallel universes project this. One positive, the other negative. Or, more specifically, one matter, the other antimatter.



                  KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out. violently.



                  SPOCK: Precisely. Under certain conditions, when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet.



                  KIRK: Like Lazarus. Identical. Like both Lazarus', only one is matter and the other antimatter. If they meet.



                  SPOCK: Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation.



                  KIRK: Of everything that exists, everywhere.




                  And when Kirk meets the sane Lazarus:




                  KIRK: Antimatter?



                  LAZARUS: Here, yes.



                  KIRK: And if identical particles meet



                  LAZARUS: The end of everything. Civilisation, existence, all gone. I tried to stop him, Captain. That's why I took your dilithium crystals.




                  Of course "The Alternative Factor" was aired in 1967, after Skylark DuQuesne (1965) and The Star Kings (1947) were published.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 10 hours ago









                  M. A. GoldingM. A. Golding

                  14.9k12658




                  14.9k12658























                      2














                      Possibility might be a weapon in Edmond Hamilton's novel "The Star Kings." This weapon was the "Disruptor," able to annhiliate vast regions of space itself and hence all matter within it.






                      share|improve this answer



















                      • 5





                        The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago













                      • What was its scale?

                        – Avenge The Fallen
                        9 hours ago






                      • 2





                        @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

                        – LAK
                        9 hours ago


















                      2














                      Possibility might be a weapon in Edmond Hamilton's novel "The Star Kings." This weapon was the "Disruptor," able to annhiliate vast regions of space itself and hence all matter within it.






                      share|improve this answer



















                      • 5





                        The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago













                      • What was its scale?

                        – Avenge The Fallen
                        9 hours ago






                      • 2





                        @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

                        – LAK
                        9 hours ago
















                      2












                      2








                      2







                      Possibility might be a weapon in Edmond Hamilton's novel "The Star Kings." This weapon was the "Disruptor," able to annhiliate vast regions of space itself and hence all matter within it.






                      share|improve this answer













                      Possibility might be a weapon in Edmond Hamilton's novel "The Star Kings." This weapon was the "Disruptor," able to annhiliate vast regions of space itself and hence all matter within it.







                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered 11 hours ago









                      user89108user89108

                      249210




                      249210








                      • 5





                        The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago













                      • What was its scale?

                        – Avenge The Fallen
                        9 hours ago






                      • 2





                        @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

                        – LAK
                        9 hours ago
















                      • 5





                        The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago













                      • What was its scale?

                        – Avenge The Fallen
                        9 hours ago






                      • 2





                        @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

                        – LAK
                        9 hours ago










                      5




                      5





                      The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

                      – M. A. Golding
                      10 hours ago







                      The Star Kings first appeared in Amazing Stories September 1947 which should be in your answer since that makes it 18 years earlier than Skylark DuQuesne. isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1144

                      – M. A. Golding
                      10 hours ago















                      What was its scale?

                      – Avenge The Fallen
                      9 hours ago





                      What was its scale?

                      – Avenge The Fallen
                      9 hours ago




                      2




                      2





                      @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

                      – LAK
                      9 hours ago







                      @avengethefallen It was used to destroy enemy fleets, but I don't believe its scale included the destruction of galaxies.

                      – LAK
                      9 hours ago













                      -3














                      =>There is a "curse" that could destroy the entire fictional civilization in a book called "The Magician's Nephew"(1955) by C.S. Lewis.




                      The Deplorable Word, as used in The Magician's Nephew, by author C. S.
                      Lewis is a magical curse which ends all life in the fictional world
                      of Charn except that of the one who speaks it.




                      =>There was also this 'The Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator' in the classic Bugs
                      Bunny short Haredevil Hare in 1948. Marvin the Martian wanted to use it to blow up
                      Earth because, as he said, "It obstructs my view of Venus". The explosive was in the form of a small red stick that resembled Dynamite that was screwed into a large telescope-like machine.



                      =>In E. E. Smith's The Skylark of Space series(written between 1915-1921) various planet-killers are used or discussed. Throwing planets and moons out of orbit, incredibly high-yield atomic or copper bombs, near-instantaneous dematerialization of physical objects and the teleporting of close to fifty billion stars in order to wipe out a Galaxy-wide alien civilization are all used.






                      share|improve this answer





















                      • 3





                        only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago








                      • 2





                        As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

                        – Mark Beadles
                        10 hours ago








                      • 1





                        One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

                        – StarHawk
                        5 hours ago
















                      -3














                      =>There is a "curse" that could destroy the entire fictional civilization in a book called "The Magician's Nephew"(1955) by C.S. Lewis.




                      The Deplorable Word, as used in The Magician's Nephew, by author C. S.
                      Lewis is a magical curse which ends all life in the fictional world
                      of Charn except that of the one who speaks it.




                      =>There was also this 'The Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator' in the classic Bugs
                      Bunny short Haredevil Hare in 1948. Marvin the Martian wanted to use it to blow up
                      Earth because, as he said, "It obstructs my view of Venus". The explosive was in the form of a small red stick that resembled Dynamite that was screwed into a large telescope-like machine.



                      =>In E. E. Smith's The Skylark of Space series(written between 1915-1921) various planet-killers are used or discussed. Throwing planets and moons out of orbit, incredibly high-yield atomic or copper bombs, near-instantaneous dematerialization of physical objects and the teleporting of close to fifty billion stars in order to wipe out a Galaxy-wide alien civilization are all used.






                      share|improve this answer





















                      • 3





                        only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago








                      • 2





                        As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

                        – Mark Beadles
                        10 hours ago








                      • 1





                        One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

                        – StarHawk
                        5 hours ago














                      -3












                      -3








                      -3







                      =>There is a "curse" that could destroy the entire fictional civilization in a book called "The Magician's Nephew"(1955) by C.S. Lewis.




                      The Deplorable Word, as used in The Magician's Nephew, by author C. S.
                      Lewis is a magical curse which ends all life in the fictional world
                      of Charn except that of the one who speaks it.




                      =>There was also this 'The Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator' in the classic Bugs
                      Bunny short Haredevil Hare in 1948. Marvin the Martian wanted to use it to blow up
                      Earth because, as he said, "It obstructs my view of Venus". The explosive was in the form of a small red stick that resembled Dynamite that was screwed into a large telescope-like machine.



                      =>In E. E. Smith's The Skylark of Space series(written between 1915-1921) various planet-killers are used or discussed. Throwing planets and moons out of orbit, incredibly high-yield atomic or copper bombs, near-instantaneous dematerialization of physical objects and the teleporting of close to fifty billion stars in order to wipe out a Galaxy-wide alien civilization are all used.






                      share|improve this answer















                      =>There is a "curse" that could destroy the entire fictional civilization in a book called "The Magician's Nephew"(1955) by C.S. Lewis.




                      The Deplorable Word, as used in The Magician's Nephew, by author C. S.
                      Lewis is a magical curse which ends all life in the fictional world
                      of Charn except that of the one who speaks it.




                      =>There was also this 'The Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator' in the classic Bugs
                      Bunny short Haredevil Hare in 1948. Marvin the Martian wanted to use it to blow up
                      Earth because, as he said, "It obstructs my view of Venus". The explosive was in the form of a small red stick that resembled Dynamite that was screwed into a large telescope-like machine.



                      =>In E. E. Smith's The Skylark of Space series(written between 1915-1921) various planet-killers are used or discussed. Throwing planets and moons out of orbit, incredibly high-yield atomic or copper bombs, near-instantaneous dematerialization of physical objects and the teleporting of close to fifty billion stars in order to wipe out a Galaxy-wide alien civilization are all used.







                      share|improve this answer














                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer








                      edited 11 hours ago

























                      answered 11 hours ago









                      Aman RaizadaAman Raizada

                      576720




                      576720








                      • 3





                        only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago








                      • 2





                        As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

                        – Mark Beadles
                        10 hours ago








                      • 1





                        One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

                        – StarHawk
                        5 hours ago














                      • 3





                        only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

                        – M. A. Golding
                        10 hours ago








                      • 2





                        As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

                        – Mark Beadles
                        10 hours ago








                      • 1





                        One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

                        – StarHawk
                        5 hours ago








                      3




                      3





                      only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

                      – M. A. Golding
                      10 hours ago







                      only the last one in your answer is truly galaxy wide. The rest of the weapons cause merely planetary destruction, which is infinitesimal on a galactic scale.

                      – M. A. Golding
                      10 hours ago






                      2




                      2





                      As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

                      – Mark Beadles
                      10 hours ago







                      As I mention in my answer, I don't think it's until the final novel of the Skylark series (Skylark DuQuesne, 1965) that Doc Smith gets to destroying entire galaxies.

                      – Mark Beadles
                      10 hours ago






                      1




                      1





                      One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

                      – StarHawk
                      5 hours ago





                      One could argue that Charn is not a planet, but an entire universe. It is unclear what scale is meant when referring to Charn / Narnia / Earth etc.

                      – StarHawk
                      5 hours ago


















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