John W. Campbell, Jr.
See all quotes from John W. Campbell, Jr.
33 First Quotations from John W. Campbell, Jr.
| atomics n. 1 | 1932 Electronic Siege in Wonder Stories Apr. 1247/2 The slim, graceful ship rose smoothly into the atmosphere…as the gentle hum of mighty Farrel Atomics poured their millions of horsepower into the McKinley space-drive discs. |
| chronoscope n. | 1936 Elimination in Astounding Stories May 57/1 I shouldn’t have told the police about my chronoscope. But I put the apparatus in, and I think I got it in right, and John, it makes the near-future images better, but what do you think—it cuts out some of the long-range tracks. |
| credit n. | 1934 Mightiest Machine in Astounding Stories Dec. 23/1 Right enough, and tell me why I have to build that five-million-credit flying laboratory. |
| Earth-normal n. | 1932 Electronic Siege in Wonder Stories Apr. 1249/1 Like the Patrol cruisers, the lifeless, defenseless ship careened on through space, her acceleration dropping immediately to Earth normal as automatic machines took up the unconscious pilot’s duties. |
| Earth-normal adj. | 1937 Tenth World in Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec. 39/2 ‘I’m going to step up to a full Earth-normal acceleration, so grab hold.’ The ship was suddenly pulling harder, as the acceleration increased from only slightly more than the equal of Ganymedian gravity to equal Earth’s gravitational acceleration. |
| escape ship n. | 1932 Space Rays in Wonder Stories Dec. 585/1 Lt. Lane and his men were dumped unceremoniously into this tiny escape ship, and turned adrift, without radio or weapons. Lane was heading with all speed for Mars, some thirty million miles away. |
| force screen n. | 1932 Last Evolution in Amazing Stories Aug. 416/2 But, they attacked in such numbers that fully half the fleet was destroyed by their explosions before the induction beam fleet arrived. These beams were, to our amazement, quite useless, being instantly absorbed by a force-screen, and the remaining ships sailed on undisturbed, our torpedoes being exhausted. |
| free fall n. | 1931 Islands of Space in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 167/1 Since they were to use the space control, though, they would be subject to infinite acceleration, it would be a free fall, and Fuller would remain helplessly weightless. |
| gravitic adj. | 1935 Mightiest Machine in Astounding Stories Mar. 112/1 To the great weapons…he added…ball magnetic and ball gravitic bombs. |
| gravity n. | 1930 Black Star Passes in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 497/1 Each man seemed laboring under the load of three gravities and four gravities as the ships flashed on at ever higher speeds. |
| gravity drive n. | 1932 Invaders from the Infinite in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring–Summer 219/1 He made a new ship…. It was equipped with gravity drive, and time distortion speed apparatus, and his far better trained mind finished this smaller ship with his titanic tools in less than the two days that it took them to reach Venone. |
| groundcar n. | 1930 The Voice of the Void in Amazing Stories Quarterly Summer 400/1 Now the four habitable planets were at once settled upon. Already they had been carefully mapped, and the Supreme Council had drawn up a plan for the use of the vast planets. More area there was than they needed now, by far, so the cities were scattered widely over the globes. Mere planetary distances meant nothing to them. And all the areas between were carefully preserved as vast, natural parks. Through them wound roads for the little ground cars, so that the people might better see the beauties of the place. And some of the harmless animals would be permitted to live that the future population might know them. |
| ion gun n. | 1935 Conquest of the Planets in Amazing Stories Feb. 32/1 By dawn the Polshins were inspecting old atomic cruisers, looking again at the old ion-guns that had swept death through a thousand corridors in past years. |
| jump n. | 1932 Invaders from the Infinite in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 217/2 So far behind them now as to be almost lost in the far scattered universes, lay their own Island, and carefully they photographed and marked it. Then they photographed the Universe that now lay less than twenty million light years ahead. […] Carefully, running forward in jumps of five million light years, forty-five second drives, they worked nearer. |
| kiloyear n. | 1945 Limits in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 5/2 Remember that homo sapiens has been around from one hundred to two hundred fifty kiloyears. |
| Luna City n. | 1934 Mightiest Machine in Astounding Stories Dec. 12/2 Trial run tomorrow starting at 13:57:30 o’clock. Just to Luna City and back. |
| megayear n. | 1935 Night in Astounding Stories Oct. 20/2 With what we have learned in the uncounted dusty megayears since, we might have been able to save him. |
| mother ship n. | 1930 Black Star Passes in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 516/1 The ships must be capable of about six or seven thousand miles a second, and that implies all the acceleration a human being can endure. Since I expect to make long trips in them, I think we will do best if we make several types of ships. Three should suffice: a small single man cruiser, with no bunk or living quarters, just a little power plant and weapon. One that can jump out of the way of a ray so quickly that it will be very hard to hit, and at the same time, because of its ray, be very dangerous. There will have to be some place for the operator of this ship to sleep and eat. I think the easiest way to solve that is to have a large fleet of mother ships—ships with a twenty-man crew, but still very active, and very deadly. These should have bunks and living quarters for the crew. Some men would be sleeping in the bunks all the time. The men could take turns running the one-man ships and sleeping. There will also be some ten-man scout cruisers. These will be used in the same way, but will have a smaller fleet of ships dependent on them. |
| normal space n. | 1931 Islands of Space in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 215/1 They were moving slowly, in normal space, only four miles a second, so they were falling swiftly toward the planet. |
| nova n. | 1942 Supernova Centaurus in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 6/2 We've considered what might happen if Sol itself went nova. If it should go supernova, no worse could happen; Earth and all life on it would be fused and volatilized in either case. |
| Solarian n. 2 | 1930 Black Star Passes in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 521/2 The small ships of the Nigrians were beginning to take a terrific toll in the thin ranks of the Solarians. The coming of the Rocket Squad had been welcomed indeed! They were able to maneuver as quickly as the enemy; the little ships, all one-man ships, were harder to spot than the Solarian ten and twenty-man ships. The Solarian one-man ships were even smaller than the Nigrian one-man ships, and some of these did a tremendous amount of damage. |
| Solarian adj. | 1930 Voice of the Void in Amazing Stories Quarterly Summer 395/1 Even in the blazing minor star they lived, darting in and coming out of its flames as unconcernedly as a Solarian ship would dart in or out of an atmosphere. |
| space drive n. | 1932 Invaders from Infinite in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 154/2 There we shall have plenty of work to do, but on the way we are going to stop at Mars and pick up that very valuable ship of theirs and make a very careful examination for possible new weapons, their system of speed-drive, and their regular space-drive, if it is not the same. |
| space field n. 1 | 1931 Islands of Space in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 199/1 There was the familiar tension in the air as the space field built up and they were hurled suddenly forward, the star-like dot of the planet suddenly expanding as they rushed forward. |
| space freighter n. | 1930 Voice of the Void in Amazing Stories Quarterly Summer 392/1 High in the jet black sky, a scant hundred miles from the ground below, a mighty space-freighter was taking off for Venus. The thin belt of atmosphere permitted it to reach a high speed quickly. Already it was in full stride and heading at 1,000 miles a second for Venus. |
| spaceline n. | 1930 Black Star Passes in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 499/1 The bonds of friendship between the two planets had grown swiftly in those three years, and they were already linked by many regular space lines. These ships made the trips as frequently as the relative positions of the planets permitted. |
| space lock n. | 1930 Black Star Passes in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 520/2 A quarter of an hour later the people who were to remain here on this planet saw the first of the monsters of the space rise slowly from the ground and leap swiftly forward, then, one every ten seconds, the others leapt in swift pursuit, rushing swiftly across half a world to the giant space lock that would let them out into the void. Then one at a time they passed out into the mighty sea of space, Pirates of Space! From one system, careening on its way through the void, they were sweeping out to another system, to take it, and overrun it with their people! |
| space pilot n. | 1932 Invaders from Infinite in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 148/1 The change from the energy-less, flavored pastes that made up the principal bulk of a space-pilot’s diet, to prevent over-eating, when no energy was used in walking in the weightless ship, was indeed a welcome change. |
| supernova n. | 1942 Supernova Centaurus in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 6/2 We’ve considered what might happen if Sol itself went nova. If it should go supernova, no worse could happen; Earth and all life on it would be fused and volatilized in either case. |
| system-wide adj. | 1935 Contest of the Planets in Amazing Stories Jan. 26/1 Had men been afflicted with some titanic system-wide plague? |
| terrestrian adj. | 1930 Black Star Passes in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 500/1 In the meantime the Terrestrian and Venerian governments were already preparing vigorously for further inroads. |
| time viewer n. | 1940 in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 6 Wanted: a chronoscope. Such a time viewer would be darned handy in many ways, but at the moment—and this moment in which I am writing is so long gone as to be difficult to recall from its point of history by the time this is read—one would be useful in devising this page. |
| tin can n. | 1938 Dead Knowledge in Astounding Stories Jan. 59/2 Two men for three years, in a tin can, makes one man. Nerve friction, as they call it. |