Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Manmade Black Hole | ||
| Using the power of a hole in the continuum. |
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).
| Chan Derron’s brain was staggered by that machine’s immensity, and baffled by its strangeness. Against the star-shot dark of space hung two great spheres of blacker blackness. Three colossal rings, set all at right angles, bound each of them; and between them, connecting them, was a smaller cylinder of the same dully gleaming metal.
“It looks a little bit like a twenty-million ton peanut,” he muttered. “But I never saw anything so black as those great globes!” “They are not anything,” said Stella Eleroid. “They are simply holes in the continuum of our universe. That blackness is the darkness of a lightless hyperspace. “It is through those holes that the geodesies are refracted,” she said. “They are held open by the achronic field coils in the rings about them. There are four rings about each globe of force—the three that you see, and a fourth that has been rotated into hyper-space. |
| Technovelgy from One Against The Legion,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Astounding in 1939 Additional resources -
|
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
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from One Against The Legion
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Williamson
Tech news articles related to One Against The Legion
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Williamson
| China Steals Strato Airship Design From Google App Engine |
| Biohybrid Jellyfish Explore The Ocean |
| 3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand |
| Smartwatch Powered By Slime Mold |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...war-balloons, or, as it would be more correct to call them, navigable aerostats.'
'This robot is a creature... It is a manlike being. Therefore, like any other talking, thinking man, he is entitled to a court trial!'
'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
