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"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
- Dan Simmons
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| Ray-Pistol | ||
| An early version of the raygun. |
As far as I know, the earliest use of this phrase.
| The pilot I left on his own ship, after disabling the radio so that no further communication could be had with the flag-ship and, at the point of the ray-pistol, I forced the commander to return to the Pioneer with me. Leaving him under the guard of Roy Hamilton, I revisited the enemy ship and made steel cable and telephone connections between it and the Pioneer; I strapped the telephone receiver to the head of the pilot, who was so utterly cowed by the ray-pistol that he obeyed my every order, and returned to my own vessel. |
| Technovelgy from The War of the Planets,
by Harl Vincent. Published by Amazing Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Vincent adds more detail, using the same phrase in Tanks Under The Sea (1930):
Chevan had risen from his chair, his face purpling. Quick as a flash his hand shot over the desk top and in it was gripped a slender weapon at sight of which Ongli turned suddenly to flee. But too late. The spiteful crack of the ray pistol coincided with his movement and a sudden flash of light burst forth between his broad shoulders; a splash of flame it seemed to be, searing flame that spread and devoured in an instant. Ongli was no more. Just vanished in a puff of vapor like a punctured gas balloon.
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'...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...'
