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
"What I have in my stories is ethics. Ethics and morality are very different cups of tea. I adhere to a very strict rigor of personal ethics and I demand it of those around me as well."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Geofractor | ||
| Device provides instantaneous teleportation of selected objects over vast distances. |
| “But the geofractor,” she said, “is based upon a principle totally new—affording a complete, controlled refraction of geodesic lines.
“The instrument utilizes achronic force-fields. My father independently discovered the same new branch of geodesy of which Commander Kalam’s expedition got some inkling from the science of the Cometeers.” “Ah, so,” Giles Habibula nodded. “Kay Nymidee used something of that sort to escape from the comet.” “But the geofractor, as my father perfected it,” the girl said, “had a power and a refinement of control that the Cometeers apparently never approached. Its achronic fields are able to rotate the world lines of any two objects within a range of several hundred light-years.” “Aye, lass.” Giles Habibula smiled as if he understood. “But in other words—?” “The geofractor projects two refractor fields,” the girl told him. “Each unit is able to deflect the geodesic lines of any object out of the continuum, and wrap them back again at any point within its range. Which means,” she smiled, “that the object, in effect, is snatched out of our four dimensional universe, and instantly set back again at the other point. “There are two coupled units,” she explained, “timed to perfect synchronism, so that each creates a perfect vacuum to receive the object transmitted by the other. That prevents the atomic cataclysms that might result from forcing two objects into the same space at the same tune. “That explains why the Basilisk—” she caught her breath, “why Derron has such a way of putting clay snakes and bricks and robots in the place of the things he takes. It balances the transmitter circuits, and saves power.” |
| From One Against The Legion,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Astounding in 1939 Additional resources -
|
There's more!
“So Derron has made it,” the girl whispered bitterly. “But my father intended it for purposes of peaceful communication. He dreamed of a timeless interplanetary express service. He even hoped to make wide stellar exploration possible, so that human colonists could spread across the galaxy.
“Yet he realized the supreme danger of his discovery. I doubt that he would ever have finished it at all, but for the bitter straits of mankind hi the cometary war. He completed it only as a weapon of last resort—and he provided a shield against it.”
Here's a description of the device itself:
“It looks a little bit like a twenty-million ton peanut,” he muttered. “But I never saw anything so black as those great globes!”
“They are not anything,” said Stella Eleroid. “They are simply holes in the continuum of our universe. That blackness is the darkness of a lightless hyperspace.
“It is through those holes that the geodesies are refracted,” she said. “They are held open by the achronic field coils in the rings about them. There are four rings about each globe of force—the three that you see, and a fourth that has been rotated into hyper-space.
Compare to the telepomp from The Man Without a Body (1877) by Edward Page Mitchell, the
displacement booth from Flash Crowd (1972) by Larry Niven, the
stepping discs from Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven and the
trip box from Eye of Cat (1982) by Roger Zelazny.
Also, see the libra-transmitter from Into the Meteorite Orbit by Frank R. Kelly, the cosmic express from The Cosmic Express by Jack Williamson, Jaunte from The Stars My Destination and the Transo from Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak.
“So that’s the geofractor!” he wheezed. “Ah, a fearful thing!”
Chan Derron’s brain was staggered by that machine’s immensity, and baffled by its strangeness. Against the star-shot dark of space hung two great spheres of blacker blackness. Three colossal rings, set all at right angles, bound each of them; and between them, connecting them, was a smaller cylinder of the same dully gleaming metal.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from One Against The Legion
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Williamson
Tech news articles related to One Against The Legion
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Williamson
| Armano Remote Control Excavator |
| Metalenses Now Reconfigurable With Liquid Crystal |
| NDB Nuclear Waste Battery Lasts A Lifetime |
| Blaux Your Personal Commuter Cooling Unit |
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.
|
'Its motion was so swift, complex, and perfect that at first I did not see it as a machine, in spite of its metallic glitter.'
Propulsion-assisted orbital decay, brought to you by SpaceX.
'He applied the tip of the instrument to the interior of the wound...'
'...what's to keep me from showing face, Man?'
'The Worldcraft bubble glittered, catching the light...'
'This is Elmer Schmitz, presenting to you the finalists in our Aviation Quiz Program...'
'Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling...'
Maybe not, but we're seeing definite progress.
'These people are pieces of software called avatars.'
