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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Double-Pane Vacuum Window | ||
| Double-pane glass separated by vacuum. |
This is an early reference to this idea in science fiction. Although the double pane idea had been around since the 1860's, the technology for making a glazed double pane window wasn't really perfected until around 1915 and even then the "filler" was usually some sort of inert gas.
Here's a window onto Mercury from an observatory.
| The old astronomer rose
to his feet, and walking with a peculiar
rolling gait led the way to a window,
fitted with double panes of darkened
glass, with a vacuum in between.
Briggs pointed beyond the window, without saying anything further. Southern peered out across the heat-blasted plain... |
| Technovelgy from The Achilles Heel,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
As far as I know, double pane windows separated by true vacuum are still being worked on, because air pressure causes them to collapse. Most seem to involve the use of transparent spacers.
The vacuum between two surfaces is the Dewar flask idea.
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Science Fiction
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
