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Let me ask you a question.
If you were a police commissioner
who allied with a theatrical bat-themed detective
to rid your city of rampant crime,
how would you go about contacting said vigilante?
A direct hotline?
Maybe, a risque Snapchat, or bat-chat, if you will?
Of course you won’t.
No you would use a giant bat image in the sky.
The Bat-Signal is a crucial part of Batman’s lore.
It first premiered in Detective Comics number 60 from 1942,
described as a cone of light piercing the dusk of day
and etching an eerie symbol against a black cloud,
the silhouette of a giant bat.
The Bat-Signal was quickly adopted as a staple
for Batman stories, even making significant appearances
across movies, TV shows, and video games.
Traditionally, we might think of it as a paging system.
A way for Commissioner Gordon or anyone else at the GCPD
to get ahold of Batman.
When it lights up, Bruce Wayne springs into action.
But it represents more than that.
In Batman and the Mad Monk, the Caped Crusader
gave Gordon a literal pager so the two
could communicate covertly.
But Gordon hated this idea so much
that he threw the pager off of the roof
and demanded a more public system.
In The Man Who Laughs, after the horrors the Joker
had put the city through, Gordon unveils the Bat-Signal
to the people of Gotham, inspiring them
to look up once more.
Sort of a ray of hope.
Which is why it’s so surprising to find out
that the inspiration for the Bat-Signal
came from a real life mad scientist who invented
a different kind of ray, a death ray.
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If you’re not familiar with these REAL Origin videos
we take a hero or object in the comic book world,
dive into the history books, and find out how
and why they were created,
uncovering the real world origins.
And today, I want to talk about what many people believe
to be the inspiration for the Bat-Signal,
which involves the man who is probably my favorite person
in all of history now, Harry Grindell Matthews.
Born in 1880, Harry Grindell Matthews
would lead a life of a failed English businessman,
and real life mad scientist.
One of his earliest inventions was called the aerophone,
and allowed for ground to air communications with airplanes.
The First World War was about to happen,
and an innovation like that would sure give an edge
to the British Armed Forces.
When the Admiralty requested
a demonstration of the aerophone,
Matthews obliged under one condition,
no experts may be present.
Matthews never wanted anyone to know
how any of his inventions worked.
So when on the day of the demonstration
Matthews caught a few observers sneakily
trying to take apart his machine while jotting down notes,
he cancelled the whole affair and stormed off.
The newspapers backed him up, but the War Office
tried to save themselves from humiliation
and cover up their folly by announcing that
the aerophone didn’t even work
and Matthews was a complete failure
of an inventor, a con man.
And this is the theme of Harry Grindell Matthews’
entire life, as we’ll see.
And it’s at this point you’re probably wondering,
“Scott, what does this have to do with the Bat-Signal?”
I promise we’re getting there, but I would be remiss
if I didn’t talk about Matthews’ greatest claim to fame.
In 1923, Harry Grindell Matthews invented the death ray.
A weapon that would go on to find a home
in popular sci-fi stories ever since,
including, reportedly, Flash Gordon’s ray gun.
Not much is known about this device
because, of course, Matthews didn’t trust anyone
enough to spill his secrets.
One article written that year though explains
that it’s quote a ray, or stream of electric particles
that can be developed and shot out for a short distance
with unknown possibilities of destructiveness, end quote.
Matthews claimed it was capable of many things
from exploding gunpowder, melting glass,
shutting down engines of cars and motorbikes,
destroying vital parts of warships
and shocking the crew inside,
and burning planes right out of the sky.
Eventually, he would demonstrate his death ray
for members of the armed forces.
But Matthews, true to form, refused to let them know
how his machine worked, only insisting
that it did indeed work.
Which yeah, admittedly, is a bit fishy,
and caused the officials to conclude that Matthews
was yet again, just a con man trying
to make money from a death ray that didn’t even,
ray death, whatever.
However, as more and more journalists
wrote up glowing reports about the invention,
the public demanded that the government
take Matthews seriously.
Especially since Matthews was threatening
to sell his invention to France instead.
Matthews continued receiving offers to demonstrate
his death ray in public, but he kept refusing
to show it off or explain how it worked until
one day he announced that we, America,
apparently bought the death ray in some way
that was never made clear.
And with that chapter of his life finally over with,
Harry Grindell Matthews moved on to America
to work with Warner Brothers.
He had previously invented one of the first sound on film
recording processes before the whole death ray thing which,
surprise surprise, was also a commercial failure.
A handful of years later,
Matthews was back in England debuting his latest
and greatest invention, the sky projector.
Yes, we are finally at the part about the Bat-Signal,
right at the moment you had forgotten
why you even clicked on this video.
Christmas Eve, 1930, if you were in the area,
you’d be able to see a message in the clouds.
An image of an angel with the words happy Christmas
as well as reportedly an accurate clock face
they were all projected into the sky.
Not exactly a bat symbol, but we’re getting there.
Much like how the Bat-Signal was used to advertise
the presence of Batman, Matthews’ sky projector was meant
to be used for literal advertisements.
One report of it said quote at night
it can project advertising on the clouds in color and motion
at a distance of several miles.
Which you gotta admit, is kind of impressive.
So why don’t we live in a world where companies
are buying ad space on clouds?
Well, the sky projector was enormous at over 30 feet long
and weighing in at around 3,000 pounds.
Not exactly easy to fix onto the roof of a police building.
This, as well as the nonexistent need for such a device,
led to yet another commercial failure for Matthews.
But this time, it was the final straw.
Harry Grindell Matthews would go bankrupt
after his sky projector failed.
As it turns out, he loved to live like Bruce Wayne,
spending most of his time and money
on fancy restaurants and lavish hotels.
In 1938, he left for Wales where he set up
a private laboratory.
During his final years, locals reported that
if you drove by his lab, your motorbike would shut off
as if Matthews was using his death ray again
just to mess with people.
He died of a heart attack in 1941,
and almost no one attended his funeral
because most of the world was busy with something else
that was happening in the 1940s.
It was only a few short months later
that the Bat-Signal made its triumphant debut
in Detective Comics, shining a bright light
on the dark and gloomy clouds over Gotham City.
The symbolism is clear, the Caped Crusader
can be a beacon of hope in the darkness,
but can also represents the idea
that Batman needs the darkness for his mission.
I mean, after all, there’s not much point in shining a light
into the bright, day-lit sky.
If Bruce Wayne intends for Batman
to be a metaphorical symbol, the Bat-Signal
is the literal symbol that advertises to superstitious
and cowardly criminals as well as civilians
who long for justice that the Dark Knight
is out there as the protector of Gotham City.
Sadly, Harry Grindell Matthews never got to see
the iconic imagery his sky projector inspired.
He never got to know the influence it had.
No matter what Batman continuity you find yourself in,
there will always be some form of Bat-Signal.
Created by tying a mob boss to a floodlight,
or crudely painted on a reflective surface,
or any other origin, the Bat-Signal persists.
It’s inevitable, and that inevitability is reassuring.
In a city where killer clowns and evil psychopaths
roam the streets invoking terror and chaos,
citizens of Gotham can look up and see
a persevering symbol that someone is out there
watching over them.
If only Harry could see it.
Hopefully you found the life of Harry Grindell Matthews
as fascinating as I did.
I’m going to immediately regret asking this,
but what would you shine into clouds
if you had your own sky projector?
Let’s talk about it all in the comments below.
Oh boy, I look forward to reading it.
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And if you want more Bat-ober videos,
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on the left right here to watch last week’s episode
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Or you can click on the right
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Until next time, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics, see ya.