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"…we store information differently, reading a science fiction story, to make it make sense."
- Samuel R. Delany
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Positron Beam |
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Vast numbers of positrons, the antimatter counterpart of the electron, are beamed around the Earth. |
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First mention of antimatter (the word "antimatter" is not used) in a science fiction story, as far as I know.
I’ve shielded off every conceivable form
of radiation. This is something else—
particles, positrons, positive electrons,
in enormous quantities. Come over
here.”
He dragged Allan this time to one of
the huge pendent magnets. A long
vacuum tube lay parallel to the wire-
coiled bar. At the farther end of the
tube, inside, was a screen, with dulled
surface. Attached to the nearer end
was a leaden, funnel-shaped machine.
Sandy thrust down a lever.
The machine whirred, but the tube
remained dark. The dull screen, however, burst into a thin perpendicular line
of glowing, sparkling pin points.
“The machine is a wave filter,” Dale
explained. "It cuts out all wave
lengths, allows only projectilelike particles to get through—my own inven¬
tion. They might be electrons, positrons, or neutrons. They’re hitting the
fluorescent screen, see, and activating it into light. Now I’ll turn on the
magnet.” He thrust another switch.
“Look at that!”
The thin line of glittering pin points
moved inexorably to the right, almost
to the very edge of the screen.
“Positrons, my boy,” he snapped.
“That’s what they are. Electrons
would have moved to the left, toward
the positive pole of the magnet, and
neutrons, having no electrical charge,
would have remained where they were.”
Allan shrugged. "So that proves
there are positrons around. What, if
anything, has that do with heavy water ?”
Sandy shook his head pityingly.
“That’s what a university education
does for a man. Positrons of a certain
voltage will smash hydrogen atoms.
Four million volts is more than sufficient. The positron slams its way into
the nucleus, and, being equal and opposite in charge to the electron, they both
whiff out of existence in a burst of
energy. The stripped proton combines
with the nearest atom that still holds
its excess electron, and, behold, you
have a double proton, or deuton, and
heavy hydrogen is born.” |
Technovelgy from The Great Thirst,
by Nat Schachner.
Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1934
Additional resources -
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The positron had only been named (and found) by Carl Anderson in 1932, after P.A.M. Dirac's 1928 prediction.
Thanks again to @MrBeamJockey for mentioning this story!
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Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...'
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