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"I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Wall in the Air  
  An invisible barrier that protects an entire island or city.  

As far as I know, this is the earliest example of this idea in science fiction.

They only could tell us that they had been taught from the Sun Island, a far-off land of the sea. Sometimes, they said, the tide was low and we could walk on dry rocks to the isle. Sometimes there was a “wall in the air.” Then no one could get there...

“That is the Sun Island. The angel-man lives there.”
“Have you not been there?”
“No. Father Renaudin spent years of the last winter there, but he is silent about them.”
“We will go there.”
“There is a wall in the air.”
“Not for us. All the star is ours!”

Before the bird people slept he ordered the construction of a small, strong stone house, with two great cellars stored with fuel, food and oil. This was built as near the island as possible. The glow of brightness made continual day around it, but warmth hardly penetrated the impassable wall in the air...

“This day only the wall in the air is removed. The bird people are asleep. I can take you there quickly!”

Technovelgy from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star, by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné.
Published by Not Known in 1887
Additional resources -

Compare to the lanson screen from The Lanson Screen (1936) by Leo Zagat, the spindizzy from Cities in Flight (1957) by James Blish, the langston field from The Mote in God's Eye (1974) by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle) and the bobble from The Peace War (1984) by Vernor Vinge.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star
  More Ideas and Technology by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné
  Tech news articles related to Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star
  Tech news articles related to works by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné

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