Put a Mini Cyclotron in Your Next Ray Gun

[RJBowman]

I was looking for a photo of a tiny cyclotron that I saw at the Smithsonian. I didn't find it, but I think that this is better:



This is the first cyclotron, invented by E.O. Lawrence. The tiny evacuated device was inspired by description of an odd device in a German electrical engineering journal. Read about it here:
https://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/lawrence/first.htm

This device, the direct predecessor of today's gigantic super colliders, accelerated charged particles, i.e. hydrogen nuclei, which are single protons, around a circular path. To do this required pulses of magnetism around the circular path, which had to be pulsed at radio frequencies to time to the particles' motion as it approached the speed of light. The article suggests that these high frequency currents were produced by a Tesla coil.

You may remember a line from the film Ghostbusters describing the Proton Pack as an "unlicensed nuclear accelerator". It was small cyclotrons like this that Dan Aykroyd had in mind when he wrote that line.

If you prefer steampunk props that actually look like functional devices, you might consider building your gun around a replica of this device.

[Banfili]

Wicked looking device - how to integrate it into a ray gun?

[J. Wilhelm]

I was looking for a photo of a tiny cyclotron that I saw at the Smithsonian. I didn't find it, but I think that this is better:



This is the first cyclotron, invented by E.O. Lawrence. The tiny evacuated device was inspired by description of an odd device in a German electrical engineering journal. Read about it here:
https://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/lawrence/first.htm

This device, the direct predecessor of today's gigantic super colliders, accelerated charged particles, i.e. hydrogen nuclei, which are single protons, around a circular path. To do this required pulses of magnetism around the circular path, which had to be pulsed at radio frequencies to time to the particles' motion as it approached the speed of light. The article suggests that these high frequency currents were produced by a Tesla coil.

You may remember a line from the film Ghostbusters describing the Proton Pack as an "unlicensed nuclear accelerator". It was small cyclotrons like this that Dan Aykroyd had in mind when he wrote that line.

If you prefer steampunk props that actually look like functional devices, you might consider building your gun around a replica of this device.

It's a really simple device. You could build a functional one if you want to, if you don't mind a little alpha and beta radiation   My physics professor in community college built one with a can and a large speaker when he was a kid. Basically a large tuna can cut in half (so you get two "D's" and you 'offset the D's in such a way that there is an "exit" from the can halves where a ray of particles can emerge ), and you need a really strong magnetic field to bend the particles' path into a circular path, (using a magnet like that from a subwoofer speaker, and then alternate the electrical charge applied to the "D's" (hook an A/C source to the can halves). It accelerates both positive (alpha) and negatively charged particles (beta = electrons) but in opposite directions. You can crate a beam of electrons and point it at a CRT TV or fluorescent tube and the tubes will light up  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron

[RJBowman]

Wicked looking device - how to integrate it into a ray gun?

If you look at ray guns on Google image search, you will see some designs that have that pill box shape built into them; those designs might trace to an original design be someone that had familiarity with this device.

To build it into the gun, you would want to stand it on edge and add a barrel and grip to it; maybe add some extra stuff to give the appearance of power supplies, hydrogen tank, etc.