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
"One could imagine a very ascetic sort of life ... where the body is ignored. This is something I've played with in my books, where people hate to be reminded sometimes that they have bodies, they find it very slow and tedious."
- William Gibson
 |
| Tubular Field of Force | ||
| Can pull an object through space. |
This is Williamson's version of a tractor beam.
| "...Before we had time to repeat the signal, the Invincible was caught by some tremendous, unseen force. The geodynes were helpless against it. Like a pebble on a string, we were drawn toward that hostile craft."
"Can you conceive of an invisible field of energy, Bob - a tubular field of force, a mathematician might call it - strong enough to drag the Invincible against her fighting geodynes, five thousand miles in five minutes? That's what happened." |
| From The Cometeers,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Street and Smith in 1936 Additional resources -
|
The earliest reference to what most sf fans call a tractor beam is the attractive ray from a 1928 novel by Edmund Hamilton. The phrase "Tractor beam" was originated by E.E. "Doc" Smith in 1931.
Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Cometeers
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Williamson
Tech news articles related to The Cometeers
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Williamson
| The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking |
| 30-Day Trip To Mars? |
| The Atacama Large Millimeter Array - And Fred Hoyle |
| Students! NASA's Space Radiation Challenge Is On |
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 legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
