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
"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Space-Walker | ||
| Tall cylinder with a window at eye-level, and pincer-claws controlled by the wearer. |
| Also attached to hooks on the walls were the four space-walkers that had been constructed for us to enable us to venture outside of the flier into airless space, if necessary. These space-walkers were cylindrical metal structures seven feet or more in height and three in diameter, tapering at the top to a smooth dome in which were small vision-windows. Each held a small generator of force-vibrations, and an equally small air-renovator.
 (From Space-Walkers from 'The Universe Wreckers' by Edmond Hamilton) There were two hollow metal jointed arms that extended from the upper part, and on entering the cylinder and closing its base-door one thrust his own arms inside those hollow metal ones. They ended in great piucer-claws that could be actuated by one's own hands inside, while the space-walker itself was moved through the void by its generated force-vibrations being shot out from a small ray-opening in the cylinder's bottom. |
| Technovelgy from The Universe Wreckers,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
This description of how it feels to wear one of these suits is classic Hamilton:
Glancing out through the vision-windows I saw that Marlin and Whitely and Randall had struggled into their space-walkers also, and were signalling their readiness. We grasped therefore the tools and materials we had hastily assembled for our task, these being spare plates to repair the flier's outer wall and a small molecular- diffusion welder, and then with those in the grasp of our great pincer-hands were pulling ourselves toward the flier's screw-door. In a moment we had that open, and were crowding into the little vestibuic-chamber which lay between the outer and inner doors. Closing the inner one tightly behind us, we swiftly screwed open the outer door. As it opened there was a rush of air from about us as the air of the little vestibule-chamber rushed out into the great airless void outside, and then Marlin was leading the way out of that door, out into sheer space, outside our falling space-flier!
I saw Marlin drawing himself in his space-walker through the door and then floating gently out that door, floating in space a few feet from our flier and falling at the same rate as it toward mighty Saturn !
The idea of a space walk was probably first described in science fiction in Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss; see space walk.
Compare to the cylinder space suit from Islands in the Sky (1952) by Arthur C. Clarke.
Compare to these other early space suit references;
the air-tight suit from Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss, the pneumatic suit from The Shot into Infinity (1929) by Otto Willi Gail, the space suit from The Emperor of the Stars (1931) by Schachner and Zagat, the altitude suit from The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell, the Osprey Space Armor from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson, the space overalls from Lost Rocket (1941) by Manly Wade Wellman, the space bubble from The Planet Strappers (1961) by Raymond Z. Gallun and the Bubble Armor Space Suit from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz.
I was standing, therefore, in a metal cylinder seven feet in height and three in diameter, its top tapering into a rounded little dome in which were small windows from which I could look outward, My arms I had thrust into the great hollow jointed anus of metal that projected from the cylinder's sides, and had at my fingers' ends inside tbose arms the controls of the great piucer-hands in which those arms ended outside, and the control also of the small generator inside the cylinder whose little force-ray was shot down from the cylinder's bottom. This could be shot straight down, sending the space-walker upward by pushing against some larger body, or could be shot out obliquely sending the space-walker horizontally in any direction. Once inside the space-walker therefore, with its tiny generator throbbing and the equally small air-renovator and heater functioning, I was ready to venture out into the airless void.
(From Space-Walkers from 'The Universe Wreckers' by Edmond Hamilton)
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Universe Wreckers
More Ideas
and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to The Universe Wreckers
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
| SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew |
| ESA To Build Moon Bases Brick By Printed LEGO Brick |
| FLOAT Levitating Train On The Moon ala Clarke |
| SpaceX Intros Extravehicular Activity Suit |
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
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
