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 only real way to maintain privacy is to be uninteresting. It may be that privacy is a passing fad."
- Larry Niven

Vacuum Suit  
  An early description of a space suit, and the first use of this now archaic phrase.  

How to survive the rigors of airless space?

The Professor next placed the transparent head gear over my head and secured it with attachments to my vacuum suit. A strange feeling of quietness and solitude came over me. While I could still see the Professor, I could hear him talk no longer as sounds cannot pierce a vacuum.
Technovelgy from The Man from the Atom, by G. Peyton Wertenbaker.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1926
Additional resources -

Here's a quote from Doc Smith's Skylark Three:

They were wearing vacuum suits and were very short and stocky, giving the impression of enormous strength.

Eando Binder didn't think much of them, as seen in this quote from Murder on the Asteroid (1933):

Their faces were red and puckered, not only from the coolness they constantly lived in, but also by reason of the many times they had ventured out in vacuum suits. The constant use of these suits was influential in promoting skin troubles and stomach disorders, for they were the acme of stale, uncomfortable, unhealthy confinement.

And from Tidal Moon by the Weinbaums:

Amherst zipped the parkalike garment closed about his long, muscular body, pulling the sillicellu visor before his rugged features before he stepped from the autobus. The cold was penetrating. Even vacuum suits — misnamed, for they did not work on the principle of the thermos bottle but had the inner layer held from the outer by thin, radium-warmed wires — were scant enough protection.

Here's another quote Using this phrase from Diamond Planetoid (1939) by Gordon Giles:

...he zippered shut his neck-piece.

He stood still while Welton fitted the glassite helmet over his head and smeared instant-drying rubber cement over the zipper runs at the shoulders and neck. After clamping an oxygen bottle to Osgood's back and connecting the triple tubes, Welton came around to the front of the grotesque figure in micromesh rubberized silk...

Welton watched the bloated vacuum suit, inhabited by his friend, crawl slowly and carefully over the microbe world of rock. He looked like a gigantic black frog in the dull Saturn shine.

For purposes of comparison, check out the space-suit from The Emperor of the Stars by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat) and the air-tight suit from Garrett Serviss' 1898 story Edison's Conquest of Mars.

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

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Man from the Atom
  More Ideas and Technology by G. Peyton Wertenbaker
  Tech news articles related to The Man from the Atom
  Tech news articles related to works by G. Peyton Wertenbaker

Articles related to Space Tech
Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside?
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station

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

Russians Create Robot Tank Platoons
'The remotely-operated robot tank is an old idea...'

3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand
'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'

Smartwatch Powered By Slime Mold
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'

Unmanned Boats Attack At Sea
'The autofreighter smashed into the boat...'

Carpentopod Walking Table
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'

Iron Drone Raider Counter-UAV Operations
'You've got an aggressive machine up in the air now.'

SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'

Quaise Uses Beams Of Energy To Dig Geothermal Wells
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'

Robots Repair And Modify Themselves
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'

Waymo And Tesla 'Autonomous Cabs' Are Piloted By Remote Drivers
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.

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.