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
"Fuzzy logic tries to get machines to think like people do, with inexact fuzzy terms."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Telephotography | ||
| Sending pictures over a distance, displaying them on a vast screen. |
I don't know where the author got his inspiration for creating what amounts to a big screen TV; each bulb in the display was like a pixel on a modern monitor screen. The telephotography screen was like a modern OLED display in that the "black pixels" were absolutely dark, with no illumination at all.
| A few seconds later he appeared in the telephotography department. Electrical impulses were arriving here over a net of wires; impulses which had originally been light at the faraway starting point and which, through selenium cells had been transformed into impulses of varying strength according to the shape and brightness of the pictures in the distance.
 (Telephotography from 'The Cosmic Cloud' by Bruno H. Burgel) These wires led to a huge screen of frosted glass behind which burned thousand of tiny bulbs, operated by the current which came through the wires from far away with the speed of thought itself. Each one of these little lamps illuminated a tiny section of the white screen, glowing feebly, strongly or going out altogether according to the brightness of the picture at the starting point in Zanzibar or elsewhere. Thus a multitude of ever-changing, bright and dark little spots were reproduced on the screen, which occupied a whole wall in an enormous dark room. They reproduced the very picture which at the point of origin had been caught by the eye of the selenium transmitter. A motion picture camera photographed this screen incessantly. Picture after picture was produced and dispatched to the art department from whence it proceeded to the engraving department after a few moments, and in another hour or two it was printed and in the hands of the readers. At times the pictures were seen by distant readers before the citizens of the place where the events were transferring. |
| Technovelgy from The Cosmic Cloud,
by Bruno H. Burgel. Published by Wonder Stories Quarterly in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Cosmic Cloud
More Ideas
and Technology by Bruno H. Burgel
Tech news articles related to The Cosmic Cloud
Tech news articles related to works by Bruno H. Burgel
| 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> |
|
|
|
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
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
