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
"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| Domed City | ||
| A vast city covered entirely by a vast covering of glass. |
As far as I know, the first reference to this idea.
The reader is introduced to the amazing city of Vitrea, so-called because it was entirely covered by glass.
| On looking upwards, in order to behold what in other towns would have been the open space of the firmament - and which, in ancient London, would have been mysteriously veiled over by a dense and awful canopy of eternal smoke, - an airy and elliptical dome of glass, fashioned and pointed like the cupola of a Moorish temple, reared itself to an immeasurable height.
So transparent was every pane which composed it, that you could see those delicate rose-coloured clouds, which are so frequent in an arctic climate, sailing through the clear blue sky: - so vast was the space it bestrode, so immense the body of air it enclosed, that there seemed ample room to make a balloon excursion within its mighty circuit. The architect, as if in sport, had here and there inserted single squares of coloured glass, at distant though regular intervals; and as the sun gleamed through the translucent patches, its rays, tinged with their various hues, formed over-head a sort of coloured net-work. The pillars which supported this crystal cupola rose lightly from a massive circumscribing wall: they were really of solid iron, but they were gilded, and wreathed round with light fantastic ornaments of vermilion: the ribs and framework of the cupola were also finished off, and burnished in the same fanciful style. In short, no effort of man has ever surpassed this model of mechanical skill, either in grace or in magnitude; and the spectator's most permanent impression was, that it seemed the work of Nature herself, that it was a created thing, and coeval with the mountains around it, and not the slow and laboured production of a race of such despicable and yet such wondrous pigmies as ourselves. |
| Technovelgy from Mrs. Maberly: Or, The World as it Will be,
by Anonymous Author . Published by John Macrone in 1836 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the glass dome from A Modern Utopia (1905) by HG Wells and the glassite moon dome from Brigands of the Moon (1930) by Ray Cummings.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Mrs. Maberly: Or, The World as it Will be
More Ideas
and Technology by Anonymous Author
Tech news articles related to Mrs. Maberly: Or, The World as it Will be
Tech news articles related to works by Anonymous Author
Domed City-related
news articles:
- Domed Cities - For Earth?
- Glass Dome Cities On Mars, Dreamed By Elon Musk
| Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin |
| Elegant Bivouac Shelter Produces Water And Electricity |
| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
| With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need |
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
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
