Proton Pack

Proton Packs are used by the Ghostbusters to capture ghosts ... and blow stuff up.

Oh and don't ever cross the streams.  It would be bad.

Overview[]

The primary and most invaluable ghost capturing tool utilized by the Ghostbusters. They appeared in every single movie or TV show of the Ghostbusters Franchise. 

Technical Specifications[]

Design Features[]

The proton pack consists of two primary components. The first is an extremely heavy compact man-portable particle accelerator. The second is a hand-held "particle thrower" attached to the accelerator that discharges highly destructive streams of positrons.  

The accelerator is nuclear powered and has a half-life of 5,000 years. It is extremely large and heavy but still man-portable enabling a fully grown man to carry it on their back. The particle acclerator concentrates protons via a miniaturized cyclotron and a positron collider to produce immense quantities of positrons. 

The "particle thrower" or "neutrona wand" is attached via a power cable to the accelerator. The wand consists of a hand grip and several control knobs and dials that focus the energy stream and adjust the power levels. The neutrona wand discharges positrons gathered by the backpack accelerator in an oscillating steam of high-energy ionized positrons. This stream of high-energy positrons is devastating when it strikes normal matter but it's most important feature is it's capacity to strip electrons from protons. This aspect is the most vital and only known way to temporarily polarizes any negatively-charged ectoplasmic entities, ie. "ghosts". 

When ghosts are temporarily polarized, it weakens them by forcibly dissipating their psychokinetic energies as well as simultaneously negating their ability to become invisible and intangible. Continued exposure to the stream of positrons results in causing a ghost's normal "out of phase" state to synchronize them into our reality's phase.  When they are in this state, they can then be contained via a Ghost Trap.

The Proton Packs are highly dangerous and difficult to wield as the discharged positrons emerges as an untuned collimated stream of energy. The stream has a tendency to undulate wildly in the atmosphere and also creates a powerful feedback effect through the neutrona wand that requires the wielder to hold it tightly and steady to maintain it on a target.

Later models of the Proton Packs were designed for simplicity or to cope with the increased psychokinetic powers of ghosts with a supercharged nuclear reactor with pre-loaded cannisters of charged protons that had be slotted into the neutrona wand to boost its efficiency.

History[]

Designed in 1984 by Doctors Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz, the Proton Pack was the result of their paranormal research. The Proton Pack was designed as a portable unit with the ability to throw a charged positronic ionized beam that would enable ghosts to be captured. Equipped with three Proton Packs; Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and their associate, Peter Venkman were able to create a legitimate business in capturing hostile ectoplasmic entities as the Ghostbusters. Their success resulted in the recruitment of a fourth man, Winston Zeddemore who was outfitted with his own Proton Pack as well.

Following the incident with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Gozer; the Ghostbusters were forced into retirement by a judicial restraining order after being sued by the state of New York for their actions and were permanently barred from ever using them as paranormal investigators. Their equipment, including the Proton Packs became props used by Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore in their new business of entertaining at children's parties. The Proton Packs were thus left unused for nearly five years before Stantz, Spengler, and Venkman became inadvertently involved with another paranormal case and they and their equipment were detained by the New York Courts.

When the case was thrown out and the judicial restraining order removed, the Proton Packs were pressed back into service in the revived Ghostbusters business.