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"I've taken some stick for passages in Altered Carbon which people complained had sickened them, but then violence should be sickening."
- Richard Morgan

Time Scoop  
  Retrieved objects from other points in time.  

There, beyond the steel door, was the time scoop. He recognized it at once. The mirror. The long metal rods, ending in claws. Like Berkowski's theoretical model - only this was real.


(Time Scoop from 'Paycheck' by Philip K. Dick)

Technovelgy from Paycheck, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Imagination in 1953
Additional resources -

Here's a description of what happens when it is used:

In the space above them something moved. A dark space formed, A circle. The space stirred. Kelly and Rethrick stared up, frozen.

From the dark circle a claw appeared, a metal claw, joined to a shimmering rod. The claw dropped, swinging in a wide arc. The claw swept the paper from Kelly's fingers. It hesitated for a second. Then it drew itself up again, disappearing with the paper, into the circle of black. Then, silently, the claw and the rod and the circle blanked out. There was nothing. Nothing at all.

Perhaps the earliest use of this general idea can be found in a 1939 story by Edmond Hamilton published in Startling Stories:


('The Space Visitors' by Edmond Hamilton)

Compare to the time dredge from Time Dredge (1942) by Robert Arthur.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Paycheck
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to Paycheck
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

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