"The SF approach: an awareness that things could have been different, that this is one of many possible worlds, that if you came to this world from some other planet, this would be a science fiction world."
- Neal Stephenson

It appears to be the same idea as apergy, from Across the Zodiac (1880) by Percy Greg, an antigravity material that needed some sort of large mass to push against.

Another classic use of this phrase can be found in John W. Campbell's classic 1937 story The Immortality Seekers (1937):

TED PENTON, of the team of Penton and Blake, regarded his companion. Rod Blake, and grinned. In the great audience hall below, twelve hundred of Callisto’s scientists were assembling to hear the message of the visitors from space.

“Plenty has happened to us since Earth kicked us out for taking off some of the three hundred square miles of territory spang in the center of Europe in an atomic explosion. It’s their own fault if they can’t find us — outlawing research on atomic power. It was obvious when we developed atomic power that we’d be the first men to reach the other planets. And nobody can follow to bring us back unless they accepted the hated atomic power and used it.”

And again, in Isaac Asimov's 1940 story Half-Breed:

"Well, I noticed here in your equations," he extracted one sheet and then another and pointed, "that whenever the eхpression representing the space-distortion fields occurs, it is always as a function of x2 plus y2 plus z2. Since the fields, as far as I could see, were always referred to as constants, that would give you the equation of a sphere." Scanlon nodded, "I noticed that, but it has nothing to do with the problem." "Well, I thought it might indicate the necessary arrangement of the individual fields, so I disconnected the distorters and hooked them up again in a sphere."

('Half-Breed' (1940) by Isaac Asimov)

"But does it work? Close the switch, damn it!" Scanlon was all fire and impatience once more.

"All right, stand back. I cut the power to one-tenth normal so we won't get more output than we can handle."

HE CLOSED the switch slowly, and at the moment of contact, a glowing ball of blue-white flame leaped into being from the recesses of the central quartz chamber. Scanlon screened his eyes automatically, and sought the output gauge.

The needle was climbing steadily and did not stop until it was pressing the upper limit. The flame burned continuously, releasing no heat seemingly, though beside its light, more intensely brilliant than a magnesium flare, the electric lights faded into dingy yellowness.

Max opened the switch once more and the ball of flame reddened and died, leaving the room comparatively dark and red. The output gauge sank to zero once more and Scanlon felt his knees give beneath him as he sprawled onto a chair...

"Atomic power!" he croaked hoarsely. "And solved by a boy, not yet twenty years old."