History Main / DisintegrationChamber

* A number of real-life scientific apparatuses (used in fields from chemistry to nuclear physics) are actually referred to as "disintegration chambers". Needless to say, none of them much resemble any of the science fiction examples listed here. There's also a [[StageMagician magic trick]] called a "Disintegration Chamber", in which a red plastic ball (seemingly) disintegrates into thin air; that also doesn't really have anything to do with this trope (although there the name may well have been inspired by the science fiction concept).

A SisterTrope of DisintegratorRay; the distinguishing factors being that the "disintegration" is explicitly a form of execution (whether by a tyrannical regime or after some kind of due process) and does ''not'' happen out in the open air as a result of the victim being shot with some kind of hand-held RayGun. Compare GasChamber.

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "Disintegration Chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. Also known as a "Disintegration Booth", "Disintegration Machine", or "Disintegration Room". Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a soft science fiction SpaceOpera and ComicBook trope.

* In the short-story collection ''Interplanetary Hunter'' by Arthur K. Barnes the "disintegrator chamber" is referred to as the fate of "gangsters".

* The "disintegration chamber" is mentioned in Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's Literature/VorkosiganSaga novel ''Brothers in Arms'': "the disintegration chamber usually reserved for convicted spies" and

* Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Literature/ProfessorChallenger short story "The Disintegration Machine" from January 1929 features an apparatus resembling an electric chair[[note]]As the narrator puts it "The nearest approach to that apparatus which I have ever seen was the electrocution chair at Sing Sing"[[/note]] which causes an object--or a person--sitting in it to simply vanish. Somewhat unusually for such devices, the "disintegration machine" in Doyle's story can re-integrate a person who has been disintegrated, bringing them back into existence without any harm.[[note]]Although in one case the machine's inventor deliberately brings someone back without his hair.[[/note]] The machine is nonetheless explicitly treated as a weapon, which could potentially disintegrate a battleship, or bring about "the whole Thames valley being swept clean, and not one man, woman, or child left of all these teeming millions", and is being marketed as such by its inventor to the world's great powers. (In such applications, the apparatus would probably wind up more resembling a DisintegratorRay than a "chamber".) At the end of the story Professor Challenger [[spoiler: disintegrates the machine's inventor--who is the only one who knows the secret of the device's construction--without bothering to re-integrate him.]]

* Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Literature/ProfessorChallenger short story "The Disintegration Machine" features an apparatus resembling an electric chair[[note]]As the narrator puts it "The nearest approach to that apparatus which I have ever seen was the electrocution chair at Sing Sing"[[/note]] which causes an object--or a person--sitting in it to simply vanish. Somewhat unusually for such devices, the "disintegration machine" in Doyle's story can re-integrate a person who has been disintegrated, bringing them back into existence without any harm.[[note]]Although in one case the machine's inventor deliberately brings someone back without his hair.[[/note]] The machine is nonetheless explicitly treated as a weapon, which could potentially disintegrate a battleship, or bring about "the whole Thames valley being swept clean, and not one man, woman, or child left of all these teeming millions", and is being marketed as such by its inventor to the world's great powers. (In such applications, the apparatus would probably wind up more resembling a DisintegratorRay than a "chamber".) At the end of the story Professor Challenger [[spoiler: disintegrates the machine's inventor--who is the only one who knows the secret of the device's construction--without bothering to re-integrate him.]]

* Played with in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E12ChosenRealm "Chosen Realm"]]. Captain Archer tricks a group of religious fanatics who have seized ''Enterprise'' into thinking that the transporter was a "disintegration device" used for capital punishment. He then "sacrifices" himself by being "disintegrated", so that he can work unhindered to take his ship back.

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "Disintegration Chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. Also known as a "Disintegration Booth", "Disintegration Machine", or "Disintegration Room". Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera and ComicBook trope, on the softer side of the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "Disintegration Chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. Also known as a "Disintegration Booth", "Disintegration Machine", or "Disintegration Room". Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera and ComicBook trope, on the softer side of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "Disintegration Chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. (Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera and ComicBook trope, on the softer side of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.) A SisterTrope of DisintegratorRay; the distinguishing factors being that the "disintegration" is explicitly a form of execution (whether by a tyrannical regime or after some kind of due process) and does ''not'' happen out in the open air as a result of the victim being shot with some kind of hand-held RayGun. In some settings, such a device may also be used for dystopian PopulationControl, or perhaps as [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture a means of suicide or euthanasia]], but science fiction Disintegration Chambers aren't like some scarily-named but ultimately harmless real-world scientific apparatuses--science fiction Disintegration Chambers are used to kill people. MurderByCremation can also resemble this in settings where it's used to formally execute people (and isn't just a matter of a private murderer disposing of a body), but a Disintegration Chamber is more likely to be depicted as a genuinely "clean" and scientific method of eliminating people, without the overtones of ColdBloodedTorture (although, [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible depending on the writer]], execution by disintegration may also be portrayed as slow and painful). Also known as a "Disintegration Booth", "Disintegration Machine", or "Disintegration Room".

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "disintegration chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. (Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera and ComicBook trope, on the softer side of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.) A SisterTrope of DisintegratorRay; the distinguishing factors being that the "disintegration" is explicitly a form of execution (whether by a tyrannical regime or after some kind of due process) and does ''not'' happen out in the open air as a result of the victim being shot with some kind of hand-held RayGun. In some settings, such a device may also be used for dystopian PopulationControl, or perhaps as [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture a means of suicide or euthanasia]], but science fiction Disintegration Chambers aren't like some scarily-named but ultimately harmless real-world scientific apparatuses--science fiction Disintegration Chambers are used to kill people. MurderByCremation can also resemble this in settings where it's used to formally execute people (and isn't just a matter of a private murderer disposing of a body), but a Disintegration Chamber is more likely to be depicted as a genuinely "clean" and scientific method of eliminating people, without the overtones of ColdBloodedTorture (although, [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible depending on the writer]], execution by disintegration may also be portrayed as slow and painful).

* In the Creator/IsaacAsimov novel ''The Stars, Like Dust'', the protagonist's father was executed by being "blasted to bits in a disintegration chamber".

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "disintegration chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. (Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera trope, and is generally on the softer side of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness). A SisterTrope of DisintegratorRay; the distinguishing factors being that the "disintegration" is explicitly a form of execution (whether by a tyrannical regime or after some kind of due process) and does ''not'' happen out in the open air as a result of the victim being shot with some kind of hand-held RayGun. In some settings, such a device may also be used for dystopian PopulationControl, or perhaps as [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture a means of suicide or euthanasia]], but science fiction Disintegration Chambers aren't like some scarily-named but ultimately harmless real-world scientific apparatuses--science fiction Disintegration Chambers are used to kill people. MurderByCremation can also resemble this in settings where it's used to formally execute people (and isn't just a matter of a private murderer disposing of a body), but a Disintegration Chamber is more likely to be depicted as a genuinely "clean" and scientific method of eliminating people, without the overtones of ColdBloodedTorture (although, [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible depending on the writer]], execution by disintegration may also be portrayed as slow and painful).

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "disintegration chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. (Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera trope, and is generally on the softer side of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness). A SisterTrope of DisintegratorRay; the distinguishing factors being that the "disintegration" is explicitly a form of execution (whether by a tyrannical regime or after some kind of due process) and does ''not'' happen out in the open air as a result of the victim being shot with some kind of hand-held RayGun. In some settings, such a device may also be used for dystopian PopulationControl, or perhaps as [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture a means of suicide]], but science fiction Disintegration Chambers aren't like some scarily-named but ultimately harmless real-world scientific apparatuses--science fiction Disintegration Chambers are used to kill people. MurderByCremation can also resemble this in settings where it's used to formally execute people (and isn't just a matter of a private murderer disposing of a body), but a Disintegration Chamber is more likely to be depicted as a genuinely "clean" and scientific method of eliminating people, without the overtones of ColdBloodedTorture (although, [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible depending on the writer]], execution by disintegration may also be portrayed as slow and painful).

* In ''Series/Foundation2021'' (the television adaptation of Asimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'') the Galactic Emperor is [[ThreeFacesOfAdam a trio of clones]], each at a different stage of the original Emperor's life; upon the arrival of a new baby clone the eldest clone Emperor [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture undergoes "ascension"]], stepping into a beam of light which reduces him to a few ashes in an instant.

* A number of real-life scientific apparatuses (used in fields from chemistry to nuclear physics) are actually referred to as "disintegration chambers". Needless to say, none of them much resemble any of the science fiction examples listed here. There's also a [[StageMagic magic trick]] called a "Disintegration Chamber", in which a red plastic ball (seemingly) disintegrates into thin air; that also doesn't really have anything to do with this trope (although there the name may well have been inspired by the science fiction concept).

* A number of real-life scientific apparatuses (used in fields from chemistry to nuclear physics) are actually referred to as "disintegration chambers". Needless to say, none of them much resemble any of the science fiction examples listed here.

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "disintegration chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. (Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a SpaceOpera trope, and is generally on the softer side of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness). A SisterTrope of DisintegratorRay; the distinguishing factors being that the "disintegration" is explicitly a form of execution (whether by a tyrannical regime or after some kind of due process) and does ''not'' happen out in the open air as a result of the victim being shot with some kind of hand-held RayGun. In some settings, such a device may also be used for dystopian PopulationControl, or perhaps as [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture a means of suicide]], but science fiction Disintegration Chambers aren't like some scarily-named but ultimately harmless real-world scientific apparatuses--science fiction Disintegration Chambers are used to kill people. MurderByCremation can also resemble this in settings where it's used to formally execute people (and isn't just a matter of a private murderer disposing of a body), but a Disintegration Chamber is more likely to be depicted as a genuinely "clean" and scientific method of eliminating people, without the overtones of ColdBloodedTorture.