Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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
"It's hard to tell stories about critters that are not human. John W. Campbell tried it, in "Twilight," and everybody says it's a wonderful story, and nobody ever reads it twice."
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Sunparlor | ||
| A vast esplanade enclosed in glass, to permit sunbathing without leaving an immense building. |
The idea of a "sun room" is obviously not unique to science fiction, but it is presented in the story as a medical necessity for the human animal in a particular setting; in this case, a life lived in an artificial environment, a single immense building.
| “The sunparlor is not crowded at this hour,” suggested Cartex. In a cubic city nothing is more than two miles from anything else. The average distance is about half a mile. The doctor was of a methodical as well as a nervous turn of mind, for, as we strolled along he laid down lines along which we were to talk. I did not fully follow him, because a woman and two children in rose-silk knitted bathing-suits and slippers came out of an apartment and sauntered along the passageway in front of us. They made a charming little group, not out of place on any sea-beach, but singular indoors. Then, suddenly, my breath was taken away, for the passage debouched on a great esplanade forty feet wide and two miles long, roofed, floored and walled with glass. Roof and floor were translucent so that we could see other levels under and above us. At first this made me dizzy but one soon grew used to it. We had come out about halfway up the wall, facing southwest, so that we were a mile high and the view was magnificent. We looked across North River and New Jersey exactly as one might from an airplane. I had been up in an airplane over New York more than once so that I recognized the terrain. But I recognized nothing else. We were above the southern end of Central Park, but New York City was gone. Manhattan Island was a well-kept meadow, grassed, treed and parked. |
| Technovelgy from The Cubic City,
by Louis Tucker, D.D.. Published by Science Wonder Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
The reader of the original story in Science Wonder Stories is given a great visualization of this scene:
(Sunparlor in 'The Cubic City' by Reverend Louis Tucker, D.D.)
The author adds the following description:
The inner half of the glass floor rose a trifle and was filled with steamer chairs; and in these chairs, basking in the spring sunshine, lay quite a number of people in bathing suits, while others strolled along the pathway.“Sunbathers,” said the Doctor. “The glass is quartz glass and lets in the actinic rays. Everyone who can get the time takes a sunbath every day. All doctors prescribe it.”
“The place does not seem crowded,” I remarked.
“The population of this floor is a hundred thousand. It has eight miles of glass promenade all exposed to the sun’s rays every day. It could accommodate a hundred thousand reclining chairs; but we find two rows of twenty thousand each enough except on Sundays. The sunbathers on week days are mostly women and children.”
Compare to the sun-room from Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Cubic City
More Ideas
and Technology by Louis Tucker, D.D.
Tech news articles related to The Cubic City
Tech news articles related to works by Louis Tucker, D.D.
| Anker's SOLIX Solar Umbrella Portable Power |
| TSA 2 - Advanced Thermosensory Stimulator Is A Dune Pain Box |
| Amazing Wheel Shapeshifting In Real Time |
| Mercedes Benz Solar Paint |
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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
'Several thousand of them formed the positioning grid on the rubble pile.'
'Its slack walls tightened, bulged, were crossed by ripples and waves of movement.'
'Norman... had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems.'
You will note that HG Wells also figured out the aspect ratio of the future!
'As though a switch had been turned off, the pain stopped...'
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'
'... he realized that the moving thing inside was - of course - a robot.'
