Hugo Gernsback
See first quotes from Hugo Gernsback
26 Quotations from Hugo Gernsback
| aerocab n. | 1911 Ralph 124C 41+ in Modern Electrics Nov. 500/1 Both were brought back to earth, or rather to their aerocab, by another aeroflyer, which hailed their driver, asking for assistance. |
| anti-gravitation n. | 1927 Interplanetary Travel in Amazing Stories Feb. 981/1 No doubt in time we shall find means for negativing [sic] gravitation, but until that time such anti-gravitation machines must lie in the distant future. |
| anti-gravitational adj. | 1925 Ralph 124C 41+ (1952) 120 Our anti-gravitational screen still let through some of the gravitational waves, or fifty per cent of the energy, which we could not seem to counteract. |
| biocomputer n. | 1961 in Amazing Stories Apr. 88/2 There will come the future amazing day…when Amazing Stories will be composed, or perhaps outlined in detail, not by human authors, but by an electronic biocomputer-menograph (menos-mind). |
| earthling n. | 1930 Life on Other Planets in Wonder Stories Dec. 629/1 The intelligence of Martians, if there be any, must be far in advance of that of earthlings. |
| grandfather paradox n. | [1929 The Question of Time-Traveling in Science Wonder Stories Dec. 610 Suppose I can travel back into time, let me say 200 years; and I visit the homestead of my great great great grand-father, and am able to take part in the life of his time. I am thus enabled to shoot him, while he is still a young man and as yet unmarried. From this it will be noted that I could have prevented my own birth.] |
| imaginative adj. | 1930 Hugo Gernsback Tells in Writer’s Digest Apr. 18/1 How to Make Stories for ‘Science Wonder Stories’ and ‘Air Wonder Stories’ More Interesting, More Readable and More Sought for by the Readers…. One of the greatest points of interest in a story, especially an imaginative story such as you will write, is that the story have verisimilitude. |
| Martian n. 1 | 1928 Baron Münchhausen’s Scientific Adventures in Amazing Stories May 155/2 Exactly the same is the case when the Martian converses by thought transmission; his brain ‘hears’ only that which he actually wishes to hear and nothing else. |
| Martian n. 2 | 1928 Baron Münchhausen’s Scientific Adventures in Amazing Stories May 151/1 For the next hour or more we had our first lesson in ‘Martian’. In easy stages our host first flashed simple pictures into our minds, which were then followed by scenes with various actions and explanations just as in a moving picture scene. |
| porthole n. | 1911 Ralph 124C 41+ in Modern Electrics 596/2 It is of course of the utmost importance that no porthole or doors leading to the outside be ever opened as long as the flyer is in the outer space. The result would be that the air would rush from the flyer instantly, resulting in a perfect vacuum in the inside of the space flyer, which would of course kill every living being almost instantly. |
| science fiction n. 2 | 1929 in Science Wonder Stories June 5/1 I started the movement of science fiction in America in 1908…. At that time it was an experiment. Science fiction authors were scarce. Ibid. 5/2 Science fiction, as published in Science Wonder Stories, is a tremendous new force in America. They are the stories that are discussed by inventors, by scientists, and in the classroom. |
| scientific fiction n. | 1929 in Science Wonder Stories June 5 Anybody who has any imagination at all clamors for fiction of the Jules Verne and H. G. Wells type, made immortal by them: the story that has a scientific background, and is read by an ever growing multitude of intelligent people. Science Wonder Stories supplies this need for scientific fiction and supplies it better than any other magazine. |
| scientifiction n. | 1916 in Electrical Experimenter Jan. 474/1 I am supposed to report Münchhaussen’s [sic] doings; am supposed to be writing fiction, scientifiction, to be correct. |
| space biology n. | 1953 Science-Fiction Semantics in Science-Fiction + Aug. 2/1 As new situations develop in science-fiction, as science progresses, new terms must be coined. Thus in 1911 the writer probably was the first to use the words space-flyer, space flying, space sickness, anti-gravitator, and many other words in common use today. Although the vocabulary of modern science-fiction is rich today, it is nothing compared with what it will become during the next 25 years. It is also true that science-fiction authors and scientists launch terms that never should have been used. As an example, one might cite a recent addition: space-medicine. To us, this is an unfortunate term, because medicine implies the curing or mitigation of disease. Space-medicine is constantly being used to investigate man’s reactions to free fall and other phenomena, which have nothing to do with disease per se. In our opinion, the correct term is: space-biology. |
| space flyer n. 1 | 1911 Ralph 124C 41+ in Modern Electrics Nov. 516/1 He knew now that Fernand 60O 10 had carried off his sweetheart in a space-flyer and that the machine by this time was probably far out from the earth’s boundary, headed for unknown parts, where it would be practically impossible to follow without knowing the direction of the fleeing machine. |
| space flyer n. 1 | 1930 Stations in Space in Air Wonder Stories Apr. 869/1 Once the space flyer has reached the critical speed, it will continue to revolve around the earth. |
| space flyer n. 1 | 1927 Space Flying in Amazing Stories Nov. 725/2 It is one thing to construct a practical space flyer which fits many conditions theoretically, but it is another thing altogether to navigate it successfully in space. |
| space flyer n. 2 | 1928 in Amazing Stories June 279 (editorial reply to reader letter) [Y]es—the space flyers missed their greatest opportunity by not trying to intercept messages from other planets. The ray was even pointed to Jupiter, but no attempt was made to use the radio. |
| space sick adj. | 1912 Ralph 124C 41+in Mod. Electrics Mar. 884/2 For the first time since he left Earth he became space-sick. |
| space sick adj. | 1929 in Amazing Stories Quarterly Winter 52/2 Ralph grew more despondent each day, and his hope of bringing his betrothed back to life grew dimmer and dimmer as the hours rolled on. For the first time since he left the Earth he became space-sick. Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it, and it does not last longer than forty-eight hours, after which it never recurs. On Earth, gravitational action to a certain degree exerts a certain pull on the brain. Out in space, with practically no gravitational action, this pull ceases. When this happens, the brain is no longer subjected to the accustomed pull, and it expands slightly in all directions, just as a balloon loses its pear shape and becomes round when an aeronaut cuts loose, to drop down with his parachute. The effect on the brain results in space-sickness, the first symptoms being violent melancholy and depression followed by a terrible and heart-rending longing for Earth. During this stage, at which the patient undergoes great mental suffering, the optical nerves usually become affected and everything appears upside down, as if the sufferer were looking through a lens. It becomes necessary to take large doses ofSiltagol, otherwise brain fever may develop. |
| spacesickness n. | 1912 Ralph 124C 41+ in Modern Electrics Mar. 844/2 Space-sickness is one of the most peculiar sensations that can befall a human being. |
| spacesickness n. | 1929 in Amazing Stories Quarterly Winter 52/2 Ralph grew more despondent each day, and his hope of bringing his betrothed back to life grew dimmer and dimmer as the hours rolled on. For the first time since he left the Earth he became space-sick. Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it, and it does not last longer than forty-eight hours, after which it never recurs. On Earth, gravitational action to a certain degree exerts a certain pull on the brain. Out in space, with practically no gravitational action, this pull ceases. When this happens, the brain is no longer subjected to the accustomed pull, and it expands slightly in all directions, just as a balloon loses its pear shape and becomes round when an aeronaut cuts loose, to drop down with his parachute. The effect on the brain results in space-sickness, the first symptoms being violent melancholy and depression followed by a terrible and heart-rending longing for Earth. During this stage, at which the patient undergoes great mental suffering, the optical nerves usually become affected and everything appears upside down, as if the sufferer were looking through a lens. It becomes necessary to take large doses ofSiltagol, otherwise brain fever may develop. |
| space station n. | 1930 Stations in Space in Air Wonder Stories Apr. 869/1 It might be asked: what useful purpose would be served by converting a space-flyer into a permanent, rapidly-revolving satellite of the earth in this manner? Professor Hermann Oberth, perhaps the greatest authority on interplanetary space, points out many uses for such revolving ‘space stations’, as he calls them. A better word, perhaps, would be ‘revolving space observatories’. |
| Terrestrial n. 1 | 1925 Ralph 124 C 41 + 41 The other was not a Terrestrial, but a visiting Martian. It was impossible to mistake the distinctly Martian cast of countenance. The great black horse eyes in the long, melancholy face, the elongated slightly pointed ears were proof enough. Martians in New York were not sufficiently rare to excite any particular comment. Many made that city their permanent home, although the law on the planet Earth, as well as on Mars, which forbade the intermarrriage of Martians and Terrestrials, kept them from flocking earthwards in any great numbers. |
| time binding n. | 1930 in Wonder Stories Sept. 375/1 This expression by the way comes from the pen of a noted writer on the progress of man; and he states that man differs from the lower forms of life in that the others are simply ‘space binding’ while we are also ‘time binding’. |
| time traveller n. | 1933 in Wonder Stories Feb. 734/3 It is now up to the professional time travellers to defend their devices for exploring the past and the future. |