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"[Science fiction] is the only kind of writing that allows you to look at the world we live in and change one piece at a time."
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![]() Jack Williamson doesn't actually use the phrase "black hole", but he does use all the words, as well as the concept. As far as I know, this is a first in science fiction (or anywhere else).
This is a part of the description of the geofractor, a teleportation device from this same story.
A firm mathematical model of a gravitationally collapsed object came about in the early 1920's through work by Einstein and Schwarzschild. A 1926 book by Arthur Eddington described how even light would be unable to escape from such an object.
Apparently, the phrase "black hole" seems to derive from the Black Hole of Calcutta (a famous prison), which Europeans encountered in the mid-1700's. The idea of a "dark star" was proposed in 1783 by an English country parson, John Michell. He wrote a letter to Henry Cavendish dated November 27, 1783, saying that such “dark stars” would be observable only by the impact they had on bodies revolving around them.
The modern use seems to derive from a shouted response from the audience during a lecture by John Wheeler, who wished for a more compact term than "gravitationally collapsed object".
Compare to the asymptotic drive from Imperial Earth (1976) by Arthur C. Clarke. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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