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
"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Microsurgery Tool | ||
| Miniaturized device for surgical precision. |
When Brand Fanshaw crash-landed, his injuries were extensive. So much so, that Charlie Masson needed all of his skills - and his microsurgery tool.
| In his slender hands he held a surgical instrument he had invented. It was a marvel! There was a long steel arm or standard that could be clamped on the end of an operating table. At the end of the arm was a binocular microscope. Beneath the latter were hundreds of screw buttons. And gathered right where the microscope was focused - where a needle-point beam of intense light could be projected for illumination - there was a ring of tiny metal prongs. You turned the screws below and the prongs moved - any or all of them - in any plane or direction you could mention, and with caliper slowness, minuteness and precision. At the end of each prong was a surgical tool - blades, tweezers, probes - so fine you could just see them with the naked eye.
Micro-surgery!.. With an apparatus like that, it wasn't hard to believe that one could sort out and rejoin properly each of the countless, individual fibers of, say, a severed optic nerve. |
| Technovelgy from Masson's Secret,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1939 Additional resources -
|
Specialized microsurgical instruments were not really created until the 1960's. They were used to reconnect very fine blood vessels on the order of 1 mm in diameter; the very best of surgeons were limited to working on blood vessels 3-4 mm in size.
As far as I know, the first use of the term "micro-surgery" combined with a description of an actual technique was in "Micro-surgery in Chronic Simple Glaucoma" read by Otto Barkin to the California Medical Association in 1937.
He really didn't use a specialized, miniaturized instrument, nor did he use any kind of mechanism to reduce his large hand movements to tiny instrument movements.
The web seems to be full of references to Jules Jacobson being the first person to coin the word "microsurgery" (which is obviously untrue). Jacobson used a microscope (ordinarily used by ENT surgeons working on the inner ear) combined with jeweler's instruments.
Compare to the microrobot from The Scarab (1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the ultra-microrobot from Menace in Miniature (1937) also by Gallun, waldo from Waldo (1942) by Robert Heinlein, the golden shuttles from The Mechanical Mice (1941) by Maurice Hugi, the autofac nanorobots from Autofac (1955) by Philip K. Dick, the nanomachine swarm from The Invincible (1954) by Stanislaw Lem, the Christmas Bush robot from Rocheworld by Robert Forward and the robot cells from Robot City (1987) by Michael Kube-McDowell.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Masson's Secret
More Ideas
and Technology by Raymond Z. Gallun
Tech news articles related to Masson's Secret
Tech news articles related to works by Raymond Z. Gallun
Microsurgery Tool-related
news articles:
- NeuroArm Robotic Surgeon 'Hands'
- 3D HD da Vinci Surgical Robotics
- Robotic Microsurgery Instrument Goes Anywhere
- Hand-Held Robot Operates On Man's Prostate
- Six Amazing Surgical Robots In One Video
- Mini Robot Uses 2 mm Surgical Tools
- Robotic Physician Assistant Has Steady 'Hands'
| MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking |
| Drug Induces Hibernation-Like State In Humans |
| Drug To Regenerate Teeth In Humans |
| Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI |
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
'...they moved with the ease of dandelion puffs.'
'...some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre...'
'These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern...'
'...the meteor caught and halted just as a small boy catches a swift ball in his cap.'
'We have decided that it shall be but one ship... it must contain everything needed to take us through the generations.'
'You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself...'
