I’ve been telling people for years about all the strange people I meet in our microfilm archives, all the weird tales the old Gazette has published in its 114-year history. I’ve written about millionaire tramps, eccentric magicians and silent murderers, all during the past nine months.

I just learned about the strange case of William Burr Gibson a few days ago.

Gibson worked in the publications department of Schenectady’s General Electric Co. in 1913, so he must have been a fan of science. He might have been reading a little bit too much Jules Verne, because in September he announced his ultra-violet ray machine was strong enough to blow up airplanes on the fly.

The 25-year-old Gibson built his death beam with an ordinary arc light, two quartz lenses and seven colored screens. It was all designed to concentrate and project UV light. Molecular action plus friction equaled heat and thus yielded explosion, at least in Gibson’s schematics. The young scientists said he had detonated sticks of dynamite from five miles away.

“Although I have not made actual experiments with aeroplanes,” Gibson said, “the success which has attended the other demonstrations warrants me in predicting that it will readily destroy war aeroplanes as it will explode ordinary mines.”

I’ll bet pilots of 1913 would have loved hearing about a young man with a death gizmo on the ground, trying to burn up their wings with doses of hot light. Battleships, Gibson told a perhaps wide-eyed reporter from the old Gazette, would also fall.

Some people in town didn’t think much about Gibson’s bright idea. One was Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, one of the smartest guys at General Electric and on Planet Earth. Steinmetz could not endorse the ultra-violet weapon — he said the rays simply did not penetrate great distances through the air. But Charley might have given Gibson a bit of encouragement.

“Theoretically, such an invention would not be absolutely incredible because it is known some explosives are exploded by high frequency sound waves,” Steinmetz said. “Therefore, it is possible some violet electric waves, if they could be concentrated on an explosive, may cause an explosion. But I question the whole thing.”

Sounds to me like other guys mad about science improved upon Gibson’s work as the 1900s progressed. Someone figured out that light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cooked up a high-tech ray of light, the laser. And today, you hear more about these lights knocking out eye cataracts, not knocking out “aeroplanes.”

If someone wants to return to Gibson’s idea of 95 years ago, Steinmetz has provided a blueprint.

Just don’t aim the damn thing at me.