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"Writing about the future, I have a vested interest in there being a future for me to write about."
- John Brunner

Vibration Screen  
  Subtle rays prevent electronic surveillance.  

In an era when techniques exist to see inside enclosed spaces (and even solid objects), what can be done when you want your research kept private?

"...Hugh, you are working on a secret invention. Over there!" He pointed to the tiny proto-steel hut at the farther end of the trench. It was blank, windowless, and a faint shimmer of rays played over its smooth surface...

That faint electric discharge playing over its surface was a vibration screen, which had repelled even the subphoton search ray of the enemy.

Technovelgy from The Shining One, by Nat Schachner.
Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1937
Additional resources -

To see what the vibration screen was intended to defend against, see the subphoton search ray from the same story.

For those who think that vibration screens are a purely sfnal mattter (who needs one?), take a look at current work in seeing through walls into hidden chambers or rooms; DARPA Radar Scope Can Sense Thru Walls and LEXID Sees Through Walls To Next Apartment.

See also this article on looking inside solid objects - Diamond Light Source Illuminates Manuscripts.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Shining One
  More Ideas and Technology by Nat Schachner
  Tech news articles related to The Shining One
  Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner

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New Train Station Offers Minority Report-Style Signs

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