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
"We'd have most of what we predicted of the conquest of space, if we hadn't ignored parasite control."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Energy Weapon | ||
| A device that fires pure energy, used as a weapon. |
As far as I know, the first use of the phrase "energy weapon".
| “Those boys make battleships. The darned things are so long, I’d have to melt down two hundred feet of ship before they’d all be gone. And they are supposed to be able to move. You know, I’ll bet they haven’t got any energy weapon like that transpon beam, and they probably wonder what manner of heat ray I have.”
“I thought,” said Carlisle, “that you said energy rays — rays that depended on energy for destruction — couldn’t be made.” “I did. And I meant it. Figure it out,” returned Aarn with a grin. “I figure,” said Spencer, “that the beam is not dangerous — it’s what it carries. Does that make any real difference ?” “That’s the answer — and it does,” replied Aarn. |
| Technovelgy from The Mightiest Machine,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1934 Additional resources -
|
A.E. van Vogt makes use of this phrase soon after, in his short story Seesaw, published by Astounding Fiction in 1941:
The window display was made up of an assortment of rather curiously shaped guns, rifles as well as small arms; and a glowing sign in the window stated: THE FINEST ENERGY WEAPONS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Mightiest Machine
More Ideas
and Technology by John W. Campbell
Tech news articles related to The Mightiest Machine
Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
| Man Builds 200 Foot Basement Firing Range |
| Russians Create Robot Tank Platoons |
| Unmanned Boats Attack At Sea |
| Iron Drone Raider Counter-UAV Operations |
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
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
