This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/OutrageousTerm7140 on 2025-08-07 02:54:53+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in 1923, a man named Harry Grindell Matthews claimed he invented a “death ray” and demonstrated it to the British military - but the device never worked and he kept disappearing with the demonstration equipment.