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

"Retire? Yeah, I want to die with my head in the typewriter. That's my idea of retirement."
- Alfred Bester

Space-Phone  
  A device for communicating with space ships, both ship-to-ship and ground-to-ship.  

THEN, jarring my sleeping brain, came a loud, impatient clanging of the space phone bell, while the indicator light continually flashed on and off, showing that someone was at the other end of the line. My first thought was that the power impulses had resumed operation and that the call was either from Astrax or from the ship ahead of us.

"This is Prixlon Lestex in charge of inspection flier #X65U39. Who is speaking?"

Technovelgy from The Message From Space, by David M. Speaker.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1930
Additional resources -

The space-phone is assumed to have a virtually unlimited range:

I will send twenty-five messages exactly like these which I hope will serve as a warning to any civilization which some of them may reach. Tf it were possible, I would give complete descriptions of our atomic energy production plants and our magnet-ray machines, but these were known only to the government and the inventors. If there exists a race whose science has enabled them to construct a space-phone like this or some similar instrument capable of receiving any of these messages, then my work has not been in vain.

This term is used the following year in Creatures of the Comet (1931) by Edmond Hamilton:

Out in the pilot-house of the speeding rocket Kirk was making much the same comment to his companion, as with deft fingers on the firing-levers he kept the rocket roaring out from earth through the black void of space, exchanging sharp words on the space-phone with the pilots of rockets that crowded them in the space-lane.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Message From Space
  More Ideas and Technology by David M. Speaker
  Tech news articles related to The Message From Space
  Tech news articles related to works by David M. Speaker

Articles related to Communication
Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus
Huawei Pura X Folding Phattie Phone
Positioned Cybertrucks With Free Starlinks WiFi In LA
Will Whales Be Our First Contact?

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>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

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

Science Fiction in the News

Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'

Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'

Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'

Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'

I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'

Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'

Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.

'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'

Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'

ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.