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"This category [science fiction] excludes rocket ships that make U-turns, serpent men of Neptune that lust after human maidens, and stories by authors who flunked their Boy Scout merit badge tests in descriptive astronomy."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Chronoscope | ||
| A device used to see into specific internals of time. |
As far as I know, this is the first instance of this sfnal usage of this term.
| I shouldn’t have told the police about my chronoscope. But I put the apparatus in, and I think I got it in right, and John, it makes the near-future images better, but what do you think — it cuts out some of the long-range tracks. It won’t show them all now.’
 (The Chronoscope from 'Elimination' by Don Stuart) His voice seemed quite annoyed, and rather petulant, I thought. ‘It won't?’ I said, quite softly, I think. ‘Let me see.’ ‘No. It Won’t show them right. There are five. I saw ’em myself. But this thing won’t work right. It cuts out four of them, and only shows one little short one. |
| Technovelgy from Elimination,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1936 Additional resources -
|
Jack Williamson also used this word in his 1938 story Legion of Time:
“Here is the chronoscope,” he said.
“The latest development of the instrument. Scansion depends upon a special
curved field, through which a sub-etheric radiation is bent into the time-axis, projected forward, and reflected
from electronic fields back to the instrument. A stereoscopic image is obtained within the crystal screen, through
selective fluorescence to the beat frequencies of the interfering carrier waves
projected at right angles from below.
But I’ll show you Gyronchi.”
THE OLD MAN snapped a switch,
manipulated dials at the end of the
crystal block. It lit with a cloudy green.
The green cleared, and a low cry escaped
Lanning’s lips.
For, microscopically clear within the
crystal, he saw a miniature world. A
broad, silver river cut a fertile green
plain dotted with villages. Beyond the
river rose two hills.
One was crowned with a tremendous
castellated citadel. Its frowning walls
and mighty towers were gleaming red
metal. Above them flowed banners of
yellow and crimson and black. A massive gate opened in the foot of the hill,
as he watched, and an armored troop
poured out.
“Watch the marchers,’’ rasped McLan.
As it turns out, the word "chronoscope" was in use already to describe a machine with a remarkably accurate measure of time increments. For a science fiction example, in The Man in the Room, by Edwin Balmer and William B. MacHarg, published in Amazing Stories in 1927:
The instrument somewhat resembled a bras.s dumb-bell very delicately poised upon an axle so that the lower part, which was heavier, could swing slowly back and forth like a pendulum. A light, sharp pointer paralleled this pendulum. The weight, when started, swung to and fro in the arc of a circle; the pointer swung beside it. But the pointer, after starting to swing, could be instantaneously stopped by an electro-magnet. This magnet was connected with a battery and wires led from it to the two instruments used in the test. The first pair of wires connected with two bits of steel which Trant, in conducting the test, would hold between his lips. The least motion of his lips to enunciate a word would break the electric circuit and start swinging the pendulum and the pointer beside it. The second pair of wires led to a sort of telephone receiver. When Margaret would reply into this, it would close the circuit and instantaneously the electro-magnet would clamp and hold the pointei’. A scale along which the pointer travels would give, down to thousandths of a second, the time between the speaking of the suggesting word and the first associated word reply.
Compare to the time machine from The Time Machine (1895) by HG Wells, the Dutch clock from The Clock That Went Backward (1881) by Edward Page Mitchell, the Anachronopete from El Anachronopete (1887) by Enrique Gaspar, precogs from The Minority Report (1956) by Philip K. Dick and the time-telespectroscope from The Exile of Time (1931) by Ray Cummings.
The hoarse whisper paused, and old
Wil McLan limped to the side of the
dome. His scarred, trembling hands
lifted a black velvet cover from a
rectangular block of some clear crystal
mounted on the top of a metal cabinet.
(Chronoscope from 'Legion of Time' by Jack Williamson)
Trant came early to set up the chronoscope in the spare bedroom next to Margaret Lawrie’s on the second floor of the deceased treasurer’s house.
('The Man in the Room' by Balmer and MacHarg)
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Elimination
More Ideas
and Technology by John W. Campbell
Tech news articles related to Elimination
Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
Chronoscope-related
news articles:
- Physicist Inspired By SciFi And Seeing Back In Time
| Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles |
| Centipede Robots Down On The Farm |
| Vipera Electric Skis From Frigid Dynamics |
| Pivotal Blackfly Electric Aircraft Lifts And Hovers |
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