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

"The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction. You look at the world around you, and take it apart into its components. Then you take some of those components, throw them away, and plug in different ones, start it up and see what happens."
- Frederik Pohl

Positron Beam  
  Vast numbers of positrons, the antimatter counterpart of the electron, are beamed around the Earth.  

First mention of antimatter (the word "antimatter" is not used) in a science fiction story, as far as I know.

I’ve shielded off every conceivable form of radiation. This is something else— particles, positrons, positive electrons, in enormous quantities. Come over here.”

He dragged Allan this time to one of the huge pendent magnets. A long vacuum tube lay parallel to the wire- coiled bar. At the farther end of the tube, inside, was a screen, with dulled surface. Attached to the nearer end was a leaden, funnel-shaped machine. Sandy thrust down a lever.

The machine whirred, but the tube remained dark. The dull screen, however, burst into a thin perpendicular line of glowing, sparkling pin points.

“The machine is a wave filter,” Dale explained. "It cuts out all wave lengths, allows only projectilelike particles to get through—my own inven¬ tion. They might be electrons, positrons, or neutrons. They’re hitting the fluorescent screen, see, and activating it into light. Now I’ll turn on the magnet.” He thrust another switch. “Look at that!”

The thin line of glittering pin points moved inexorably to the right, almost to the very edge of the screen.

“Positrons, my boy,” he snapped. “That’s what they are. Electrons would have moved to the left, toward the positive pole of the magnet, and neutrons, having no electrical charge, would have remained where they were.”

Allan shrugged. "So that proves there are positrons around. What, if anything, has that do with heavy water ?”

Sandy shook his head pityingly. “That’s what a university education does for a man. Positrons of a certain voltage will smash hydrogen atoms. Four million volts is more than sufficient. The positron slams its way into the nucleus, and, being equal and opposite in charge to the electron, they both whiff out of existence in a burst of energy. The stripped proton combines with the nearest atom that still holds its excess electron, and, behold, you have a double proton, or deuton, and heavy hydrogen is born.”

Technovelgy from The Great Thirst, by Nat Schachner.
Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1934
Additional resources -

The positron had only been named (and found) by Carl Anderson in 1932, after P.A.M. Dirac's 1928 prediction.

Thanks again to @MrBeamJockey for mentioning this story!

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Great Thirst
  More Ideas and Technology by Nat Schachner
  Tech news articles related to The Great Thirst
  Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner

Articles related to Engineering
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

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>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

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

Science Fiction in the News

Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'

Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'

Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'

Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'

Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'

Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.

'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'

Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'

Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'

DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.