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"In 1970 I found little difficulty staying 30 years ahead of the man in the street, and now I find it difficult to stay 18 months ahead of the man on the street."
- Vernor Vinge
 |
| Force-Field | ||
| A barrier to objects, created by projected forces. |
The notion of a force-field is widely used in science fiction; this is a very early reference.
| Arcot had used the force field that produced the directed motions of the molecules as a weapon. |
| From Islands of Space,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Here's another very early reference, from the same year, by 'Doc Smith writing in Space Hounds of IPC:
Compare to other early ideas about projecting force, like attractive ray from Edmond Hamilton's 1928 novel Crashing Suns or the super-photon ray from Campbell's 1932 story Invaders from the Infinite.
He first called Mars, the home planet of Alcantro and Fedanzo, the foremost force-field experts of three planets; and was assured in no uncertain terms that those rulers of rays were ready and anxious to follow wherever Brandon and Westfall might lead.
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