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"Science fiction has gotten more accurate as we've gotten closer to the present, because science fiction stories have not only attracted, but also generated current scientists."
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![]() This is a very early reference to the concept of a device or technology that could penetrate a locked room to hear conversations within the room.
Here's another quote from the story about using the device:
I threw the current into my apparatus. I prayed, if it met interference, that the slight sound would pass unnoticed. George Prince had said that he would make opportunity to disconnect the room's insulation. He had evidently done so. I picked up the interior sounds at once; my headphone vibrated with them. And with trembling fingers on the little dial between my knees as I crouched in the darkness behind the cylinder case, I synchronized.
Ray Cummings described eavesdropping rays this way in Voyage 13 (1938):
An eavesdropping ray! You can hear them sometimes, when you are close to a metal obstruction through which they are passing. An eavesdropping ray from some near-by point was focused upon Normah’s door. It was picking up the murmur of the three voices and humming a little with the door’s interference.
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