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

"I was wholly addicted to watching Kojack, for as long as it was on television."
- Frederik Pohl

Sun-Telephone  
  Receives transmissions from the sun itself.  

I was still more interested in the Sun-Telephone - not far away from the house - which was a scheme originated by Gladden. The Society of Futurity had kept it up, but had never got any definite results from it.

It was rigged somewhat like the Mars Magnetograph, with poles and wires around a large circle, but had a telephone receiver attached to it.


(Sun-Telephone from 'In the Deeps of Time' by George Parsons Lathrop)

Through this receiver we could hear strange and awful moanings; but no one had ever been able to get a definite message from it. Zorlin insisted that, according to Kurol philosophy, the sun was the abode of lost souls...

"...Of course, it warms and cheers you when it shines moderately. But you cannot look at it with the naked eye... Is not its effect in summer fiendish and intolerable; and when it shines too intensely does it not drive people mad and cause epidemics of wrath and suicide?"

After that I never could listen to the dreary groanings of the Sun-Telephone without thinking of what he said.

Technovelgy from In the Deep of Time, by George Parsons Lathrop.
Published by Not known in 1897
Additional resources -

I'm interested in this item because it appears to predate the field of radio astronomy by at least a generation:

A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky...

Radio waves from space were first detected by engineer Karl Guthe Jansky in 1932 at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey using an antenna built to study radio receiver noise. The first purpose-built radio telescope was a 9-meter parabolic dish constructed by radio amateur Grote Reber in his back yard in Wheaton, Illinois in 1937. The sky survey he performed is often considered the beginning of the field of radio astronomy.

It turns out that the sun is a significant source. The Sun was one of the first objects studied by early radio astronomers. Other objects in the sky are much more powerful, but the sun's close proximity to us makes it appear radio-bright to us here on the third planet. Solar flares on the Sun's surface are often accompanied by a burst of radio energy.

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

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from In the Deep of Time
  More Ideas and Technology by George Parsons Lathrop
  Tech news articles related to In the Deep of Time
  Tech news articles related to works by George Parsons Lathrop

Articles related to Communication
Huawei Pura X Folding Phattie Phone
Positioned Cybertrucks With Free Starlinks WiFi In LA
Will Whales Be Our First Contact?
NYC/Dublin Portal Fails To Meet 'Guardian Of Forever' Standards

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.