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

"You have to budget the number of fuzzy rules you use to control a system. It turns out, you can state the optimality principle in three words: 'patch the bumps.'"
- Bart Kosko

Indirect Cold Light  
  Apparently source-less lighting, highly efficient, with no waste heat.  

I recall from history that at your time, during the Steel Age you thought yourselves quite accomplished when you succeeded in heating a wire in vacuum or some inert gas, and thus securing a light having an efficiency of three or five per cent. We use cold light with an efficiency of ninety to ninety- five per cent. We are using but one lamp at present in this room and it consumes a little less than three watts yet it is as effective as ninety or a hundred watt lamp of the old style.

"There is nothing mysterious about it, however, much as it differs from the old method. We use a tiny short-wave radio transmitter sealed in a tube of fused quartz. Here," he opened a compartment in the wail and took out a spare tube. "You will notice that point inside the tube— it is tipped with a radio-active material which emits a stream of electrons. The grid and plate are connected electrostatically for the feedback. The rate of oscillation is varied until it is of the frequency of white light and the movable adjustment is welded in place with a ray welder focussed through the quartz tube. We have other lamps on board that are adjusted to emit colored light ; and the searchlights we are using at the moment are infra-red. These rays are invisible but penetrate the mists well, and the reflected beams are picked up on the television plates around the shell of the vessel, being interpreted as white light on the screens before the control table. We are thus able to see where we are going and to view the ground, while to anyone without apparatus we are invisible. We have an adjustable light in another room if you care to examine it"

With the help of the captain, Addison managed to navigate into another room where the officer touched a button on the door casing and the room was flooded with white light. With a dial on the switch plate, connected through the walls with the mounting of the lamp, the officer rotated the bulb, changing the light through the entire spectrum of colors as he varied the wave length. The colors were brilliant, not at all like the results from the old method of shining a white light through a prism, for there was something vital about the colors emitted. And Addison marveled.

Technovelgy from The Silent Destroyer, by Henri Dahl Juve.
Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1929
Additional resources -

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

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Silent Destroyer
  More Ideas and Technology by Henri Dahl Juve
  Tech news articles related to The Silent Destroyer
  Tech news articles related to works by Henri Dahl Juve

Articles related to Engineering
China's Drone Mothership Can Carry 100 Drones
Drones Recharge In Mid-Air Like Jets Refuel!
Heat Waver - The First Ever Combo Solar Collector And Wind Turbine
Tesla 'Fleet Response Agents' Bolster FSD Autonomy

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

LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving
'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.'

Has Elon Musk Given Up On Mars?
'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.'

Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea.
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'

When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'

China's Drone Mothership Can Carry 100 Drones
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'

Drones Recharge In Mid-Air Like Jets Refuel!
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'

Australian Authors Reject AI Training Of Llama
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'

Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside?
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'

Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.

Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'

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.