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
"The trouble with too much genre SF is that it's so obviously the product of the conscious mind."
- William Gibson
 |
| Telepomp (Matter Transmission) | ||
| A device that transmitted matter from one place to another. |
This is the earliest reference (as far as I know) to the idea of matter transmission or teleportation.
The narrator of the story is visiting the Arsenal Museum in Central Park, and encounters a bizarre talking head. It turns out that this is all that remains of a scientist who invented a new way to travel - the Telepomp.
| "Listen," he said. "In the course of my experiments with the telephone I became convinced that the same principle was capable of indefinite expansion. Matter is made up of molecules and molecules, in their turn, are made up of atoms. The atom, you know, is the unit of being... Their dissolution may be accomplished by chemical affinity or by a sufficiently strong electric current..."
"There was no reason why matter could not be telegraphed, or to be etymologically accurate, 'telepomped.' It was only necessary to effect at one end of the line the disintegration of the molecules into atoms and to convey the vibrations of the chemical dissolution by electricity to the other pole, whhere a corresponding reconstruction could be effected from other atoms. As all atoms are alike, their arrangement into molecules of the same order, and the arrangement of those molecules into an organization similar to the original organization, would be practically a reproduction of the original. It would be a materialization - not in the sense of the spiritualist's cant, but in all the truth and logic of stern science." |
| From The Man Without a Body,
by Edward Page Mitchell. Published by The Sun in 1877 Additional resources -
|
Once implemented, the Telepomp worked perfectly.
He also draws power from the following analogy: "I constructed an instrument by which I could pull down matter, so to speak, at the anode and build it up again on the same plan at the cathode."
In my rooms on Joy Street, in Boston, I had about five miles of wire. I had no difficulty in sending simple compounds, such as quartz, starch, and water, from one room to another over this five-mile coil. I shall never forget the joy with which I disintegrated a three-cent postage stamp in one room and found it immediately reproduced at the receiving instrument in the other. This success with inorganic matter emboldened me to attempt the same thing with a living organism. I caught a cat - a black and yellow cat - and I submitted him to a terrible current from my two-hundred-cup battery. The cat disappeared in a twinkling. I hastened to the next room and, to my immense satisfaction, found Thomas there, alive and purring, although somewhat astonished.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Man Without a Body
More Ideas
and Technology by Edward Page Mitchell
Tech news articles related to The Man Without a Body
Tech news articles related to works by Edward Page Mitchell
| Implosion Fabrication Shrinks 3D Objects To Nanoscale |
| ODYSSEUS Solar-Powered Stratospheric Plane Flies Forever |
| Phil Nuyttnn's City Under The Sea |
| Stick-On Tape Speakers, As Predicted By Bruce Sterling |
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 Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'The world ... is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon.'
'He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna...'
'It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while.'
It's the polite thing to do, and has been the polite thing to do for about four generations.
