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"Science fiction operates a little bit like science itself, in principle. You've got thousands of people exploring ideas, putting forth their own hypotheses. Most of them are dead wrong; a few stand the test of time; everything looks kind of quaint in hind"
- Peter Watts
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| Sun-Engine | ||
| A device that absorbs solar rays for power. |
Earliest use of this particular phrase.
| Curwood turned away, lips tight. He forced himself to take note of the surroundings. The buildings around were of a strange, ornate architecture. Toward the center line of the valley, where the sunlight was strongest, were the huge machines he had vaguely seen through the visor of his air-helmet during his first descent into the Blue Mist. Mirrored and skeletal, they seemed to be some sort of sun-engine. Thin vanes within glass spheres began already to rotate as the sun’s rays poured into them. |
| Technovelgy from Valley of Lost Souls,
by Eando Binder. Published by Amazing Stories in 1939 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the sun plant (solar motor) from The Lotus-Engine by Raymond Z. Gallun, published by Super Science Stories in 1940.
See also the power planet from Power Planet (1931) by Murray Leinster, the near-space solar energy collector from Star Maker (1937) by Olaf Stapledon, the solar energy beam from Masquerade (1941) by Clifford Simak and the solar station from Isaac Asmov's 1941 story Reason.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Valley of Lost Souls
More Ideas
and Technology by Eando Binder
Tech news articles related to Valley of Lost Souls
Tech news articles related to works by Eando Binder
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| Jetson ONE Air Races Begin, Can Air Polo Be Far Behind? |
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
