Famous SciFi scribe 1986 light creation?

[Riddick]

In his 1986 short story Burning Chrome. William Gibson wrote a few lines in a short story where one of the main characters goes to a pawn shop and the owner tries to sell him a weapon with a light slung under the barrel.

"A xenon lamp that throws a noon bright light into a 12 inch circle at 50 yards" or something close to that paraphrased here. He also remarks on how it couldn't be seen unless you were right in line with it

not remembering the state of the flashlight world at that time (to busy raising a family) I was pretty impressed with Mr. Gibson's theorizing here of a light in the future (I guess throw was on his mind). It caught my attention while listening to it in a audio book on my phone at work, because I'm low flood guy

I know writers research a lot before they even write a sentence (at least the better ones do) but sometimes they gotta dream stuff up and figure out how it worked or would work. the only real question I have is, did he have similar type product back then to reffrence or was he on the path to greatness here? He is a tremendous author in my opinion and was responsible/credited for the begining of the cyberpunk universe we're all headed towards.

Audio books are pretty cool also! Just thought one or two of you guys would enjoy a blast from the past and had an opinion or two!

Thanks:drunk:

 

[dano]

In 1986 Laser Devices had laser modules (note: NOT Laser Products, which would later become Surefire). Surefire started in 1984 with weapon mounted laser sights, lights followed soon afterward. There's mention of weapon mounted lights as far back as the early 70's, so it wasn't a new idea in 1986.