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"The way you write science fiction is: you sit down at your writing machine and you open your mind to the first thought that comes through."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Radium-Action Lighter | ||
| A personal device used to ignite tobacco products. |
During the pre-war era, there was a lot of talk about atomic devices of various kinds.
| ...she held out a little cylinder of black metal. It was a radium-action lighter for cigarettes.
"I've got a hunch. This can make a coal of intense heat - like a forge in miniature." Then he switched on the lighter, and held it directly against the little tag of iron. The key grew red, then livid white, finally waxy soft as the heat melted it. |
| Technovelgy from The Worlds of Tomorrow,
by Manly Wade Wellman. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the pocket nucleo-bulb penlight from Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
