Melting Pot (Strange Tales item)

MELTING POT

Classification: Terrestrial technology

User/Possessors: Sam Barlow

First Appearance: Strange Tales I#63/5 (June, 1958)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Melting Pot was a hand-held device that would emit an energy field which could disrupt the molecular-bonds of various metals, causing them to liquefy at room temperature; it had an effective range of 50 yards. Originally built to just affect steel, its oscillating frequency would later be changed to melt gold, instead. It is unknown if it could potentially work on other substances as well.

History:
(Strange Tales I#63/5) - After years in prison, convict Sam Barlow finally perfected the Melting Pot and used it to escape prison quite easily, melting his way past prison bars, the guards' guns, and any other obstacles along the way. He made it to the outside world, but during his escape, the control lever was jammed, leaving the Melting Pot permanently in an active state.

Barlow made his hide-out in a wooden building, then proceeded to start a crime spree using the Melting Pot to melt his way into bank vaults. Eventually, he had accumulated a fortune in gold bullion. Deciding to retire with his ill-gotten gains, Barlow smashed the Melting Pot with a rock to deactivate it, but unbeknownst to him, he had only altered the Pot's oscillating frequency so that it now melted GOLD rather than steel. Barlow went into his hide-out to check on his plundered gold bars and found all of them starting to melt.

After finally tracking him down to his hide-out, the police arrived just in time to save Barlow from drowning in a building filled with liquefied gold.

Comments: Created by an unknown writer and John Forte.

Years later, industrialist Bruno Horgan would create a similar device, then he used it to battle Iron Man as the Melter.

And a big THANK YOU to Dennis Giansante for scanning this story for me!

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Melting Pot should not be confused with:

Meltdown, former general in the Russian army @ Havok/Wolverine: Meltdown#1
Meltdown, (Tabitha Smith) longtime X-Force member @ X-Force I#51
Melter, Bruno Horgan, enemy of Iron Man @ Tales of Suspense I#47
Melting Pot, Shi'ar transit station @ Inhumans IV#2
any other melting thing/character

Sam Barlow

Created a device that could melt metal, used it to escape prison. A problem with the Melting Pot caused it to melt the gold Barlow stole, and he almost drowned in it before being rescued by police officers.

--Strange Tales I#63/5

images: (without ads)
Strange Tales I#63, p20, pan2 (main image)
p18, pan2 (powers)

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Last Updated:10/13/07

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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