George O. Smith

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George O. Smith

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67 Quotations from George O. Smith

Centaurian adj. 1947 G. O. Smith in Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr. 87/1 He'd go down in history…as the first peacetime user of directive power for interstellar flight. He'd comb the Centaurian system, and then return home with proof.
continuum n. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction May 148/1 I doubt that the separation between different space continuums is infinitesimally small…. More like a matter of a sort of quanta-separation. If the separation were not reasonably large, the energy necessary to break through would not be so great. I predict that we are in the space next door to our own.
continuum n. 1949 G. O. Smith Fire in Heavens in Startling Stories July 43/2 Suppose we postulate two side-by-side continuums. One is increasing in matter and energy as the other converts. This makes one build up while the other is running down. Then—vice versa. This may have happened at that unconceivable time, two thousand millions of years ago, when it is believed that our universe was started.
earthfall n. 1952 G. O. Smith Bombs Awry in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 118/1 The entire criterion of the exercise was whether the Vanguard and its crew could make Earthfall in one, well-integrated piece.
egoboo n. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 47/1 Being a space pilot has—well, a certain egoboo. You find yourself invited here and there by people who have never been any farther out of new York than Hackensack, or maybe no farther out of Chicago than Evanston.
esp v. 1955 G. O. Smith Highways in Hiding in Imagination Mar. iii. 27/2 As soon as we heard the screech of brakes and rubber we esped the place.
esper n. 1955 G. O. Smith Highways in Hiding in Imagination Mar. ii. 13/2 Most medicos are highgrade espers, not telepaths. Reading the mind of a patient is not very effective, because the average patient has no real idea of what is wrong with him. An esper digs the trouble out without having his mind all fogged up by some layman’s opinion of what causes the ache and pain.
flitter n. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Circle of Confusion in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 54/1 Small flitters were powered and made ready, and everything that carried manual controls was inspected and cleaned for action.
galaxy-wide adj. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction May 175/2 Sscantoo will reap the benefits of a Galaxy-wide culture.
gravitic adj. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Latent Image in Astounding Science Fiction May 25/1 Gravitic phenomena propagates at the speed of light raised to the power of 2.71828—That’s our limiting velocity.
gravitics n. 1 1944 ‘W. Long’ Redevelopment in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 147/1 And if they got off of their planets, they’d be using gravitics.
gravitics n. 1 1945 ‘W. Long’ Fixer in Astounding Science Fiction May 81/2 Our power took a beating, as far as we are from it, and we know what kind of power it takes to do anything with the gravitics on Telfu.
home sun n. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 20/2 He tried at later times, but there was a reticence about their accepting Sol as a home sun.
kiloday n. 1945 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 95/2 Leilanane has been in school for four kilodays and her contact with her famous brother has been limited.
kiloday n. 1945 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 141/2 He had known the man for many kilodays.
lifeship n. 1944 G. O. Smith in Astounding Science Fiction May 10/2 We limped in using a jury-rigged line from the lifeship’s alphatron and made a something-slightly-less than a crash landing here on Pluto.
lifeship n. 1945 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 81/2 He dropped from the larger ship in the tiniest of lifeships, and taking the barrier-generator with him, he let the Loki drive across the System towards Mephisto, while he in the lifeship gave a short, ten-minute thrust at 10-Gs and set up the barrier again.
lifeship n. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 53/1 Commander Hatch looked down at his feet. ‘I was in a space can once,’ he said. ‘They don’t last forever. I—’ He let his voice trail away. Wilson looked into their faces. The cold, bleak fact was so clear in their faces that he could not ignore it. He was forced to recognize the fact that a lifeship is no spacecraft. A lifeship is a flimsy tin can, as spaceworthy as an open raft on the broad ocean, as spaceworthy as an umbrella in a windstorm.
light-week n. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 21/2 We are close to Sol. A light-week or less.
mag- prefix 1944 ‘W. Long’ Latent Image in Astounding Science-Fiction May 11/2 In spite of the fact that Dr. Ellson claimed to have discovered a region in the mag-grav spectrum that produced a faint success.
matter transmission n. 1945 G. O. Smith Special Delivery in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 74/2 By Franks' matter transmitter to Mojave. Spacecraft to Luna. More matter transmission from Luna to Phobos. Then transshipped down to Lincoln Head, and by matter transmitter to Canalopsis.
needle-beam n. 1945 G. O. Smith Identity in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 156/1 With two needle beams trained on his back, he was helpless.
needler n. 1953 G. O. Smith Stop, Look & Dig in Space Science Fiction Mar. 57/1 I came back with one of his needle-rays and burned the contents of the safe to a black char. I stirred up the ashes with the nose of the needler and then left it in the safe after wiping it clean on my handkerchief.
needle-ray n. 1953 G. O. Smith Stop, Look amp; Dig in Space Science Fiction Mar. 57/1 I came back with one of his needle-rays and burned the contents of the safe to a black char. I stirred up the ashes with the nose of the needler and then left it in the safe after wiping it clean on my handkerchief.
planet v. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 24/2 A fleet that’s planeted for charging isn’t in the most admirable position for attack.
planet v. 1945 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 169/1 Fifty Terran machines raced forward and encircled the smoking ruin; and seven of the planeted constellation ships blasted a pathway back to safety.
planetfall n. 1944 G. O. Smith Off the Beam in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 6/2 Any message-answering would have to be done thirty hours later, when the ship made planetfall, and the regular terminal office of Interplanetary Communications could be employed.
planetside n. [1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science-Fiction May 152/1 A sixty-foot rectangular building of steel, one story high, resting upside down with the planet[-]side to the sky.]
pressor beam n. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Circle of Confusion in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 49/1 The careful positioning of the stations that held the warp of the collapsed fore element was lost as the tractor-pressor beam system took the unleashed overload current.
pressor ray n. 1951 G. O. Smith Black Alarm in Science Fiction Quarterly Nov. 54/1 The squadron retreated, forming its shape as it went, until firm pressor rays behind the out-flung planes felt for and caught the core of Sanaron’s outermost planet.
pseudogravity n. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 32/1 ‘Below. I'll show you. I want to cut the paragrav generator by half, anyway.’ ‘Paragrav?’ ‘Pseudo-gravity,’ said Norton crisply. ‘You’ve noticed there’s still an up and down? That’s it. But the damned thing radiates heat like mad, along with producing its gravitic field.’
sentience n. 2 1947 G. O. Smith Kingdom of Blind in Startling Stories July 48/1 Secondly, the true schizophrenic paranoid cannot rail against a mechanistic fate. He must find some sentience to fight, some evil mind to combat. For the paranoid feels that he can win in the end, which of course would be impossible against a case of mechanistic doom. Therefore Carroll needed some sentient manifestation of this doom, something that he could strike at, fight against. Therefore he has accused an ‘alien culture’ of tampering with the records to prevent us from knowing the truth.
sentient adj. 1947 G. O. Smith Kingdom of Blind in Startling Stories July 48/1 Secondly, the true schizophrenic paranoid cannot rail against a mechanistic fate. He must find some sentience to fight, some evil mind to combat. For the paranoid feels that he can win in the end, which of course would be impossible against a case of mechanistic doom. Therefore Carroll needed some sentient manifestation of this doom, something that he could strike at, fight against. Therefore he has accused an ‘alien culture’ of tampering with the records to prevent us from knowing the truth.
solar n. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. i. 11/1 [W]ould you care to do this the easy way? After all, Maynard, we are going to have the answer anyway. For your own sake, why not give it without pain. That offer of fifty thousand solars will be withdrawn upon the instant that the switch is closed.
space armor n. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction May 166/1 Seventeen million of the Loard-vogh died in the Battle of Sol, and more than half of them perished because Terran spores crept into chinks in their space armor. Chinks so small that they do not permit loss of air to space.
space-born adj. 2 1944 G. O. Smith Long Way in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 90/2 You may have trouble understanding our feelings. We are essentially a space-born company, and as such we can have no one at the helm that is not equipped to handle the technical details of operation in space.
space field n. 1 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Oct. 20/2 There has been a partial failure of the warp-generator. If this failure becomes complete, and the space field collapses, the effect will be that of precipitating intrinsic mass into the real Universe while traveling at some high multiple of the velocity of light.
space-going adj. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 45/1 And bringing up the rear were the myriad upon myriad of supply ships, replacement carriers, machine-shop craft, and even space-going foundries.
spacegram n. 1944 G. O. Smith Off the Beam in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 7/1 ‘Reading my mail?’ asked Channing cheerfully. The average spacegram was about as secret as a postcard, so Channing didn’t mind. He turned the page over and read: HOPE YOU’RE WELL FILLED WITH GRAVANOL AND ADHESIVE TAPE FOR YOUR JUMP FROM TERRA TO STATION. SHALL TAKE GREAT DELIGHT IN RIPPING ADHESIVE TAPE OFF YOUR MEASLY BODY. LOVE. ARDEN
spaceline n. 1946 G. O. Smith Impossible Pirate in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 63/2 The skipper had treated them with stories of his own and had explained that it had been the original intention to serve the dinner during the turnover, but all pilots were not as capable as the one they had now, and the turnover had been known to be rough at times—and no space line liked to have the job of removing spilled soup from fifty evening gowns, let alone the bad publicity.
space lock n. 1949 G. O. Smith Fire in the Heavens in Startling Stories July 70/1 Jeff stood in the open spacelock and called directions through the telephone as Lucille lifted the big rocket gently and cautiously onto its jets.
spacemanship n. 1953 G. O. Smith Troubled Star in Startling Stories Feb. 44/2 Then his mind would wander a bit and Scyth would chuckle quietly over something entirely removed from spacemanship.
space piracy n. 1946 G. O. Smith Impossible Pirates in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 60/2 Black Morgan was a space pirate and the place to look for him was in space. That space piracy was impossible for divers reasons seemed to make little difference to Black Morgan. He did it.
space pirate n. 1946 G. O. Smith Impossible Pirates in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 60/2 Black Morgan was a space pirate and the place to look for him was in space. That space piracy was impossible for divers reasons seemed to make little difference to Black Morgan. He did it.
spacer n. 2 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 55/2 The sky was dark with their light spacers, landing, and the air was roiled mechanically with the landing craft that dropped from the spacecraft in never ending streams.
space-suited adj. 1942 G. O. Smith QRM–Interplanetary in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 127/2 The air lock was opened and space-suited figures swarmed over the mile-wide end of the station.
space warp n. 1944 ‘W. Long’ Circle of Confusion in Astounding Science-Fiction Mar. 53/2 The alphatron is still in fine shape, and the space[-]warp generator can still do a job.
spaceworthy adj. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 53/1 Commander Hatch looked down at his feet. ‘I was in a space can once,’ he said. ‘They don’t last forever. I—’ He let his voice trail away. Wilson looked into their faces. The cold, bleak fact was so clear in their faces that he could not ignore it. He was forced to recognize the fact that a lifeship is no spacecraft. A lifeship is a flimsy tin can, as spaceworthy as an open raft on the broad ocean, as spaceworthy as an umbrella in a windstorm.
spacewreck n. 1953 G. O. Smith Troubled Star in Startling Stories Feb. 13/1 But how about the several cases of spacewreck? Look what we're doing. We're setting up beacons along a rift through the galaxy from Marandis to the Spiral Cluster. We found this rift after years of hard work and galactic surveying and exploring, and both of you know just how fabulous it is. Well, suppose someone found it twenty thousand years ago and got marooned?
spacewreck n. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 60/1 Vacantly the three survivors of spacewreck, in the lost lifeship, stared at the grille of the infrawave receiver in the deadly silence that followed Admiral Stone’s last transmission.
spacewrecked adj. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 55/2 She was holding fast to a blind hope, the same hope to which many a shipwrecked and space-wrecked victim has clung when the searching party passes at a distance and goes on, and the mind keeps crying that surely someone will turn and see.
spacing n. 1 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 22/2 Alice was breathing a silent prayer to Commodore Wilson that he make it a quick run. She was sick and tired of spacing already.
star lane n. 1953 G. O. Smith Troubled Star in Startling Stories Feb. 23/2 The three-day variables are used for course markers; the longer variables are used to denote gas fields, nebular dust, and the like, and the still-longer beacons are used to denote places where various well-travelled starlanes meet, cross or merge.
star system n. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 27/1 Then Hotang Lu sketched a crude diagram of the catmen’s star-system.
subetherics n. 1948 G. O. Smith Trans-Galactic Twins in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 18/2 If I remain on Trenda, I may learn the answer to the atomic engines and sub-etherics.
subetherics n. 1948 G. O. Smith Trans-Galactic Twins in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 27/2 But then any insistence he made as to the science of sub-etherics and the functions thereof would be immediately discounted as the ravings of a sick mind.
subspace n. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction May 155/1 We have the following observations regarding subspace: One is that the matter is unlike Terrene matter. The other is that there is a differential in time passage.
suit radio n. 1944 G. O. Smith The Long Way in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 84/2 ‘But I'll catch up,’™ he promised as he made connection between his suit-radio and the Station communicator system.
Terran n. 1 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 10/2 If the Terran were less clumsy, he might well be more difficult for Kregar.
Terran n. 2 1944 ‘W. Long’ Redevelopment in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 163/2 She had chosen to teach those who met her the Terran language instead of learning Telfan. Now those who understood any bit of Terran had gone to meet the Haywire Queen.
Terran adj. 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 9/1 His family could trace its line back to the first group of Terran colonists that braved the rigors of Martian life before technology created a Martian world that was reasonably well adapted for human life.
terrene adj. 2 1946 G. O. Smith Pattern for Conquest in Astounding Science-Fiction May 155/1 We have the following observations regarding subspace: One is that the matter is unlike Terrene matter. The other is that there is a differential in time passage.
terrestrian adj. 1953 G. O. Smith Troubled Star in Startling Stories Feb. 48/2 By this time Dusty figured that he might as well let Gant Nerley have it cold and hard. It would show Gant that the mighty Marandanian was no more distant from the lusty chimpanzee than the terrestrian.
tin can n. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 53/1 Commander Hatch looked down at his feet. ‘I was in a space can once,’ he said. ‘They don’t last forever. I—’ He let his voice trail away. Wilson looked into their faces. The cold, bleak fact was so clear in their faces that he could not ignore it. He was forced to recognize the fact that a lifeship is no spacecraft. A lifeship is a flimsy tin can, as spaceworthy as an open raft on the broad ocean, as spaceworthy as an umbrella in a windstorm.
transgalactic adj. 1948 G. O. Smith in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 9 (title of story) The Trans-Galactic Twins.
transgalactic adj. 1954 G. O. Smith Spacemen Lost in Startling Stories Fall 60/2 From somewhere has come the inevitable transgalactic culture, only with guns instead of gifts.
viewport n. 1945 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 95/1 If we have ten million men that never see Mephisto from anything but the viewports of the transports, we'll be better off than if we were blasted to every last man for not having enough of them.