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"It wasn't until I was past forty that it bacame clear that I was going to be quote, successful, unquote."
- Isaac Asimov

Contragravity Suit  
  A suit with antigravity.  

Not the first use of contragravity (or contra-gravity), which has been around for quite a while; read on.

People came to Niflheim, and worked the mines and uranium refineries and chemical plants, but they did so inside power-driven and contragravity-lifted armor, and they lived on artificial satellites two thousand miles off-planet.
Technovelgy from Uller Uprising, by H. Beam Piper.
Published by Twayne Publishers in 1952
Additional resources -

The word itself was used in physics as early as the nineteenth century. Here's a quote from The Autobiography of Eric Russel (1857):

So, by forming two revolutions in one, it acts in contra-gravity force, and also in centrifugal force, so that the further with weight is from the centre the more power it has over the centre...

The hyphenated phrase "contra-gravity" is used early on in science fiction. The Golden Age story Barton's Island, written in 1929 by Harl Vincent describes it:

It had been his discoveries that revolutionized aviation in 2219 and brought him into prominence in the engineering fraternity at the early âge of thirty. For nearly three centuries previously the relation of the gravitational to the electro-magnetic field was known, it having been proved mathematically in the twentieth century. But it remained for Philip Barton to discover means of utilizing this knowledge for the benefit of mankind. His method of producing contra-gravitational fields had eliminated the use of wings and vertical lifting propellers on ail types of air craft. And later his reaction motor obviated the necessity of the horizontal propellers as well, and provided not only much greater fuel economy, but entire independence of the density of air as a medium for obtaining propulsive effect.

The engine room of the Inquisitor was provided with two contra-field generators, each of sufficient power to support the vessel when fully loaded. These generators were of the most improved type, and were connected to fore and aft pole pieces from whence the contra-gravity flux emanated. When these were energized, a field was produced that could be varied in intensity at will, as well as reversed if the necessity arose. The basic discovery of the graviton had led Barton to the development of this unique apparatus, and the zenith of perfection had been reached in this particular portion of the Inquisitor's mechanism. The graviton, be it remembered, was identified by Barton in the laboratory as a close analogy to the magneton, that final element of magnetism whose relation to magnetism is similar to that of the electron to electricity. Its relation to the earth's gravity field being determined, it was a logical, though by no means a simple, step to the artificial generation of gravitons, both positive and negative. The method of producing a negative gravitonic field surrounding two poles composed of the metal bartonite was his final development, and the world found itself in the possession of a practical means of getting away from the surface of the earth by the repulsive force of the opposing fields.

Compare to the anti-gravity belt from Armageddon: 2419 A.D., by Philip Frances Nowlan.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Uller Uprising
  More Ideas and Technology by H. Beam Piper
  Tech news articles related to Uller Uprising
  Tech news articles related to works by H. Beam Piper

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