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"I think a lot of kids whose mental growth outruns their maturity gravitate to science fiction."
- Dan Simmons
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| Antigravity | ||
| A force opposed to gravity. |
This is the earliest use of this word in a strictly science fiction magazine. See antigrav boots for the earliest use of the abbreviated version of that word, as far as I know.
| But the antigravity apparatus will have to be capable of generating a greater repulsive force than is required for ordinary interplanetary conditions. |
| Technovelgy from The Vanguard of Neptune,
by J.M. Walsh. Published by Wonder Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
An earlier use of "anti-gravity" can be found in a short story in a publication called The Scrap Book, published in 1906:
Hanging on a level with my eyes was a pair of feet in tan shoes... As I stared in wonder at the dangling feet, they gradually receded, in a gliding manner, until they had faded from view...
"...bending down he twisted the handles on two metal rods that were strapped to his legs, like pole-climbers' irons.
Immediately, to my consternation, he rose in the air until his head touched the ceiling...
It's ridiculously simple, this new force. A piece of platinum and a piece of copper coated with - but that's the real secret of it all. I'll say nothing of that just now. A disk of platinum coated with my new preparation, in which, I may say, radium plays some part, has a propelling power of immense force.
...For want of a better name I am temporarily referring to it by the ridiculous and wholly inadequate name of "Anti-Gravity". The power of this strange agenc y is the greater the larger the superficial area of the metal exposed. A cover of rubber-coated copper neutralizes the force. On the instep of my shoes I have a disk of the prepared platinum fastened, together with a cover of copper that can be turned on or off at will by means of these connecting rods...
(From The Man in the Air, by Frederick R. Keates)
Note also that the idea of a force that acts in opposition to gravity can be found in the description of "apergy" found in Percy Greg's 1880 novel Across the Zodiac:
The use of antigravity is also seen in the spindizzy from James Blish's 1957 novel Cities in Flight.
As I passed the window of his workshop, I looked in. What I saw there puzzled me exceedingly.
" I needed a repulsion which would act like gravitation through an indefinite distance and in a void..."
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
