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"...the people dealing with these new technologies will still be derived from the human stock we're familiar with today."
- Charles Stross
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| Tractor Beam | ||
| A force field used to pull objects. |
Read an early example of this specialized kind of force field. This is the first instance of the term "tractor beam."
| "We'll carry off the pieces of that ship, too, Quince—we may be able to get a lot of pointers from it," and Brandon swung mighty tractor beams upon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel, then extended a couple of smaller rays to meet the two little figures racing across the smooth green meadow toward the Sirius. |
| From Spacehounds of IPC,
by E.E. 'Doc' Smith. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
The same device is used in Triplanetary:
"What do you make of that, Costigan?" asked the captain. "Tractor beams?"
"Apparently. They've got something like that. They're taking us somewhere fast. I'll go get a couple of Standishes, and another suit of armor - we'd better dig in," - and soon the small room became a veritable fortress...
Although Smith certainly won the naming convention, Edmond Hamilton wrote about essentially the same thing three years earlier in Crashing Suns - the attractive ray.
Other examples of force fields in sf include the barrier force field fence from Robert Heinlein's 1940 novella Coventry and the force-field penknife from Isaac Asimov's 1951 novel Foundation (probably the basis for George Lucas' light saber from Star Wars).
As they entered their retreat they felt their weight begin to increase. more and more force was applied to the helpless liner until it was moving at normal acceleration.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Spacehounds of IPC
More Ideas
and Technology by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
Tech news articles related to Spacehounds of IPC
Tech news articles related to works by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
Tractor Beam-related
news articles:
- Gravity Tractor Research By British Scientists
- Tractor Beam Works Over Longer Distances
- Physicists Build Repulsor / Tractor Beam
- Tractor Beams? They're Working On It
| Space Weather Forecasters Surprised By Strong Solar Storm |
| JWST Finds New World Of Turbulent Silicate Clouds |
| Spectroscopic Analysis Of DART Impact Debris Cloud (SF Prediction) |
| M-Dwarf Stars May Not Have Habitable Planets |
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'LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.'
'...a rolled-up sheet of a thin, dark metal strange to them.'
'... his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex.'
'Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal...'
With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
