Research in new fields and the construction of weapons of unprecedented impact held a special place in Nazi Germany. We have already written about it earlier, but there were other projects, no less odious, and no less disastrous in the end.
Today we will tell you about one more superweapon that was not destined to appear on the battlefield. It's about a design by Richard Wallauschek known as the Schallkanone. Of course, the fact that sound waves that a person does not hear (ultrasound and infrasound), nevertheless, affect him, was known even before World War II. But it was the scientists of the Third Reich who began to study how this effect occurs, experimenting on people.
Richard Wallauszek, familiar with most of the results of such experiments, set himself the task: to build a device-emitter that could affect the enemy at a distance, leading to a shell shock or death. The work was difficult (as you know, low frequencies cannot be sent in a directional way), and the personnel conducting experiments on the installation suffered much more than any "enemy".
Nevertheless, at the end of 1944, the "sonic gun" was ready and presented to the "Research and Development Commission" in early 1945. The setup consisted of a parabolic three-meter (3 m 25 cm) reflector and a system that made it possible to produce “controlled explosions” in the center of the reflector. The injector “injected” methane and oxygen, and a special device supplied a spark to the ignition system of this mixture.
Everything happened at strictly verified intervals, as a result of which the required frequency was achieved. The resulting roar led to the fact that at a distance of less than sixty meters from the installation, people actually lost consciousness and even died.
However, the miracle weapon did not have the desired effect on the commission. After reviewing the operation of the device and studying the estimates for the work, the commission decided that it was much cheaper and more efficient to use a conventional machine gun. And in January 1945, the activities of the Valaushek project were terminated and funding was curtailed.
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Schallkanone However, the Schallkanone installation itself was not destroyed and fell into American hands. They also conducted a series of experiments, having obtained results similar to those of German scientists. And the conclusions were similar: since the radius of destruction is small, military use is questionable.
