Edward E. Smith

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Edward E. Smith
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146 Quotations from Edward E. Smith

Aldebaranian n. 1 1941 E. E. Smith Second Stage Lensmen in Astounding Science-Fiction Dec. 27/2 ‘Good Heavens, no!’ the Aldebaranian exclaimed, so positively that Clarrissa jumped.
Aldebaranian n. 2 1939 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. vi. 11/2 ‘Good morning. Dessa,’ he greeted her in Aldebaranian. ‘You are feeling better, I hope?’
Aldebaranian adj. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. xvi. 76/2 He had chased a couple of dope runners to Aldebaran II, and there he had encountered the most vividly, the most flawlessly, the most remarkably and intriguingly beautiful girl he had ever seen. [...] He got away from her, with only a couple of scratches, just in time to capture her confederates as they were making their escape. He had been afraid of beautiful women ever since. He’d like to see that Aldebaranian hell-cat again—just once. He’d been just a kid then, but now—
alien life form n. [1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 557/1 I have thought of it at length. It is disgusting. Compelled to traffic with an alien form of life! ]
atomics n. 2 1948 E. E. Smith Triplanetary 96 Six of those targets that did such fancy dodging were atomics, aimed at the Lines.
battleship n. 1928 E. E. Smith Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 553/2 Aerial battleships, eight of ’em!… No wings—they act like helicopters.
battleship n. 1962 E. E. Smith & E. E. Evans Masters of Space in Worlds of If Jan. 105/2 One minute after the Terran battleship Perseus emerged into normal space, the Orion went into subspace for her long trip back.
blast off v. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Sept. 31/2 How long do you figure it'll be before it’s safe for us to blast off?
boat n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 545/2 ‘Since you’re not familiar with the controls of a ship of this type, you need practise. Shoot us up around that moon over there and bring us back to this spot.’ ‘She’s a sweet-handling boat—easy like a bicycle,’ declared Loring as he brought the vessel lightly to a landing upon their return.
communicator n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 29/2 ‘Observation Officer of the Z12Q, attention!’ snapped from the tight-beam headquarters communicator. ‘Cut off those spy rays and report yourself under arrest for treason!’
communicator n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 17/1 The flying vessel had gone through the zone of feeble radiations which comprised the outer detector screen of the Fenachrone. But, though tenuous, that screen was highly efficient, and at its touch there burst into frenzied activity the communicator built by the captive to be actuated by that very impulse. It had been built during the long flight through space, and its builder had thought that its presence would be unnoticed and would remain unsuspected by the Terrestrials.
communicator n. 1939 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 26/2 I never could see how you deep-space men can really understand what you’re doing—either the frightful speeds at which you travel, the distance you cover, or the way your communicators work.
credit n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. 68/2 Bid, one thousand credits per packet of ten. Offered, none at any price.
cycle n. [1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. 411/2 Gigantic craters, in whose yawning depths no spark of warmth had been generated for countless cycles of time, were surrounded by vast plains eroded to the dead level of a windless sea.]
deep space n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. 76/1 Alone in his ship, and in deep space although he was, he blushed painfully as he remembered what had happened to him during that visit.
deep space n. 1939 E. E. Smith in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 26/2 Like most of the girls here, I suppose, I have never been out in deep space at all. Besides a few hops to the moon, I have taken only two flits, and they were both only interplanetary.
deep-space adj. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. 73/1 Part of the time he spent in the speedster dashing hither and yon. Most of it, however, he spent in the vastly more comfortable mauler; to the armored side of which his tiny vessel clung with magnetic clamps while he slept and ate, gossiped and read, exercised and played with the mauler’s officers and crew, in deep-space comradery.
deep-space adj. 1939 E. E. Smith in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 26/2 I never could see how you deep-space men can really understand what you’re doing—either the frightful speeds at which you travel, the distance you cover, or the way your communicators work.
deep-space adj. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Sept. 21/2 The young commander, seated at his conning plate, clenched his fists and swore a startled deep-space oath as his eyes swept over the delicately accurate meters and gauges before him; for under the frightful impact of that instantaneously launched attack his outer screen was already down and his second was beginning to crack!
dropshaft n. [1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Sept. 9/1 The little column marched down the hall. In their path yawned the shaft—a vertical pit some twenty feet square extending from main floor to roof of the Hall; more than a thousand sheer feet of unobstructed air, cleared now of all traffic by flaring red lights. Five left heels clicked sharply, simultaneously upon the lip of the stupendous abyss. Five right legs swept out into emptiness. Five right hands snapped to belts and five bodies, rigidly erect, arrowed downward at such an appalling velocity that to unpracticed vision they simply vanished. Six tenths of a second later, precisely upon the beat of the stirring march, those ten heels struck the main floor of Wentworth Hall, but not with a click. Dropping with a velocity of almost two thousand feet per second though they were at the instant of impact, yet those five husky bodies came from full speed to an instantaneous, shockless, effortless halt at contact. The drop had been made under complete neutralization of inertia—‘free’, in space parlance. Inertia restored, the march was resumed.]
Earthbound adj. 2 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. 67/1 And, fifteen years or so from now—if he lived—when he was no longer fit for the grinding, grueling life to which he now looked forward so eagerly, he would select the Earthbound job for which he was best fitted and would become a good executive.
earthlike adj. 1928 E. E. Smith & L. H. Garby The Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 550/1 We found air and Earth-like conditions here; we probably will elsewhere.
earthlike adj. 1938 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Jan. 131/1 Off he shot, and in due course a fair, green, Earthlike planet lay beneath his vessel’s keel.
earthman n. 1930 E. E. Smith in Amazing Stories Sept. 553/2 We thank you with all force, Earthmen, for what you have done for us this day.
earth people n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 559/2 As they walked along the Earth[-]people stared, held by the unearthly beauty of the grounds.
esper n. 1942 E. E. Smith Storm Cloud on Deka in Astonishing Stories Nov. 54/2 I'm neither a Lensman nor an esper, but I'd swear that somebody’s peeking over my shoulder half the time.
Europan n. 1 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. xiii. 570/2 Many of the spectators were not, strictly speaking, Callistonians at all. They were really Europans, born and reared in that hidden city which was to have been the last stronghold of Callisto’s civilization.
Europan adj. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. xiii. 570/1 Callisto’s foremost citizens were on hand to welcome the Terrestrial rescuers, and revelry reigned supreme in that deeply buried Europan community.
face plate n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Aug. 405/2 Back in the control-room, Dunark and Sitar let their pressure decrease gradually to that of the terrestrial vessel and removed the face-plates from their helmets.
faster-than-light adj. 1966 E. E. Smith Skylark DuQuesne vi. 43 Whether or not a Tellus-type planet ordinarily becomes unfit to support human life before its sun goes nova is not surely known. Nor does it matter very much; for, long before either event occurs, the human race involved has developed a faster-than-light drive and has at its disposal dozens or hundreds of Earth-like planets upon which even subhuman life has not yet developed.
faster than light adv. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 20/1 An atomic explosion starting on the surface and propagating downward would hardly develop enough power to drive anything material much, if any, faster than light, and no explosion wave, however violent, can exceed that velocity.
fleet n. 1965 E. E. Smith Skylark DuQuesne in Worlds of If Oct. 132/2 Remember how easily that self-styled Overlord wiped out your navy and then volatilized your whole stinking world? And how easily Klazmon of Llurdiax smacked your whole fleet down?
flitter n. 1941 E. E. Smith Vortex Blaster in Comet July 10/2 Then all three went out to the flitter. A tiny speedster, really; a torpedo bearing the stubby wings and the ludicrous tail-surfaces…characteristic of the tricky, cranky, but ultra-maneuverable breed.
force field n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 544/2 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.
force field n. 1939 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 29/2 I was reading in the ‘Transactions’ the other day that force fields had been used in big units, and were more efficient.
galaxy-wide adj. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. 57/2 It is more than a race or a system. It is actually a galaxy-wide culture.
groundcar n. 1937 E. E. Smith in Astounding Stories Nov. 136/1 I will return in three hours, as well before sunset the wind makes it impossible to get even a ground car into the port.
home planet n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 544/2 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.
home planet n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Sept. 27/1 We know but little more than we knew countless thousands of cycles ago, when our home planet was still substance.
home system n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 623/2 It was soon learned that a few of the ships were exploring quite close to their home system.
hyperspace n. 1939 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 140 Wouldn’t have surprised me much if we'd been clear out of the known Universe. Hyperspace is funny that way, they say.
inhuman adj. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 546/2 As the gigantic and inhuman brain was spread before them, DuQuesne and Loring read not only the language, customs, and culture of the Fenachrone, but all their plans for the future, as well as the events of the past.
Jovian adj. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 549/1 ‘We'll carry off the pieces of that ship, too, Quince—we may be able to get a lot of pointers from it,’ and Brandon swung mighty tractor beams upon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel, then extended a couple of smaller rays to meet the two little figures racing across the smooth green meadow toward the Sirius.
lifeboat n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Sept. 39/2 The human beings were no longer aboard; the little lifeboat that was Skylark Two was no longer in her spherical berth.
lifeboat n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Aug. 107/1 I want your thoughts, as well as your knowledge, and I’m going to have them. If you give them voluntarily, I will tinker up a lifeboat that you can navigate back to your own world and let you go; if you resist I intend getting them anyway and you shall not leave this vessel alive.
light n. 1 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Sept. 36/1 We're not supposed to know anything about the five-light drive of the Fenachrone, you know.
light-century n. 1928 E. E. Smith & L. H. Garby Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 545/1 They made a reading on an object-compass focused upon the Earth. Seaton’s face lengthened as seconds passed. When it had come to rest, both men calculated the distance. “What d'you make it, Mart? I'm afraid to tell you my result.” “Forty-six point twenty-seven light-centuries,” replied Crane, calmly.
light-week n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 24/1 They have warning long before anything can possibly happen. They can, and do, spot trouble over a light-week away, so their plans allow one week to perfect their defenses.
mad scientist n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 20/1 I have heard of mad scientists who tried to destroy the Earth, and of equally mad geniuses who thought themselves Napoleons capable of conquering even the Solar System.
midspace n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 35/2 [The] torpedos…could not be controlled, but darted madly and erratically hither and thither, finally to be exploded harmlessly in mid-space by the touch of some fiercely insistent, probing beam of force.
mind-controlled adj. 1947 E. E. Smith Children of the Lens in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 48/2 He launched his ultimately lethal weapon, the Worsel-designed, Thorndyke-built, mind-controlled projector of thought-borne vibrations which decomposed the molecules without which thought and life itself could not exist.
mother ship n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Mar. 25/2 As if contemptuous of any weapons the lifeboat might wield, the mother ship simply defended herself from the attacking beams, in much the same fashion as a wildcat mother wards off the claws and teeth of her spitting, snarling kitten who is resenting a touch of needed maternal discipline.
needler n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Sept. 23/1 ‘Needlers, fire at will!’ barked Kinnison, and even that feeble resistance was ended. Keen-eyed needle-ray men, working at spy-ray visiplates, bored hole after hole into the captive, seeking out and destroying the control-panels of the remaining beams and screens.
needle-ray n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 22/2 He spun a couple of wheels briefly, pressed a switch, and from the Violet’s heaviest needle-ray projector there flashed out against the prow of the scout patrol a pencil of incredibly condensed destruction.
needle-ray n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Sept. 23/1 ‘Needlers, fire at will!’ barked Kinnison, and even that feeble resistance was ended. Keen-eyed needle-ray men, working at spy-ray visiplates, bored hole after hole into the captive, seeking out and destroying the control-panels of the remaining beams and screens.
neutronium n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 564/1 We're going to project a fourth-order force out to grab us some dense material, a pretty close approach to pure neutronium.
neutronium n. 1930 E.E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 564/1 ‘Neutronium? Pure mass?…I have been under the impression that it does not exist. Of what use can such a substance be to you?’ ‘Can’t get pure neutronium, of course…couldn’t use it if we could. What we need and are going to get is a material of about two and a half millionspecific gravity.’
neutronium n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 615/1 Ten enormous supporting forces held the lens of neutronium immovable in the exact center of the upper end; at intervals down the shaft similar forces held variously-shaped lenses and prisms formed from zones of force; in the center of the bottom or floor of the towering structure was the double controlling system, with a universal visiplate facing each operator.
nova n. 1966 E. E. Smith Skylark DuQuesne vi. 43 Whether or not a Tellus-type planet ordinarily becomes unfit to support human life before its sun goes nova is not surely known. Nor does it matter very much; for, long before either event occurs, the human race involved has developed a faster-than-light drive and has at its disposal dozens or hundreds of Earth-like planets upon which even subhuman life has not yet developed.
planet dweller n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. v. 408/2 I deduce, from your compact structure, your enormous atmospheric pressure, and your, to us, unbelievably high body temperature, that you must be planet-dwellers.
planetless adj. 1965 E. E. Smith Skylark Duquesne in Worlds of If June 11/2 It'd've been smarter, maybe, to've put 'em in orbit around a planetless sun.
planetographer n. 1938 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Jan. 136/1 There were continents, bearing mountains and plains, lakes and rivers. There were oceans, studded with islands great and small. But Kinnison was no planetographer.
planetographer n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Nov. 141/2 Perils of a planet unknown to and unexplored by Boskone’s planetographers.
planetography n. 1941 E. E. Smith Second Stage Lensmen in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 33/2 All the various Boards and Offices and Bureaus concerned with space, astronomy, astrogation and planetography.
pressor n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 560/1 Onward and upward flashed the gigantic duplex cone, its entire whirling mass laced and latticed together—into one mammoth unit by green tractor beams and red pressors.
pressor n. 1940 E. E. Smith in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 107/2 ‘Tractors and pressors as assigned—tip him over.’ The intensity of the bombardment did not slacken, but from the maulers to the north there reached out pressors, from those upon the south came tractors; each a beam of terrific power, each backed by all the mass and all the driving force of a veritable flying fortress.
pressor beam n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 544/2 We'll have them in three days, and it ought to be fairly simple to dope out the opposite of a tractor, too—a pusher or presser [sic] beam.
pressure suit n. 1928 E. E. Smith Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 539/2 Have you fur pressure-suits?
ray n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 544/2 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.
ray v. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Aug. 406/1 That air-blast is probably what saved us, as they destroyed our vessel with atomic bombs and hunted down the four men of our crew, who stayed comparatively close to the scene. They rayed you for about an hour with the most stupendous beams imaginable—no such generators have ever been considered possible of construction—but couldn't make any impression upon you. Then they shut off their power and stood by, waiting. [Ibid. 408/1] ‘Ray it for a time; he will probably open the shield for a moment, as the other one did,’ then, after a time skipped over by the mind under examination, ‘Cease raying—no use wasting power. He must open eventually, as he runs out of power. Stand by and destroy him when he opens.’
ray projector n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 24/2 Costigan had seen that there was a third enemy…a pirate who was even then training a ray projector upon him.
ray-proof adj. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 31/1 Even the captain, in the shell-proof, shock-proof, and doubly ray-proof retreat of his conning compartment, was equally at a loss.
Rigellian n. 1 1941 E. E. Smith Vortex Blaster in Comet July 14/1 Without knowing how he had arrived at it, he knew the answer; just as the Posenian or the Rigellian is able to perceive every separate component particle of an opaque, three-dimensional solid, but without being able to explain to anyone how his sense of perception works.
Rigellian n. 1 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Nov. x. 138/1 ‘You are sure that I would be of no help to you?’ asked the Rigellian, half pleadingly.
Rigellian adj. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Nov. x. 135/1 The lock was pumped to a vacuum; there was a hiss of entering air; a spray of vaporous liquid bathed every inch of the vessel’s surface, and Kinnison felt again the calm voice of Tregonsee, the Rigellian Lensman.
scanner n. 1935 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Jan. 77/2 That cabinet became instantly a manifold scanner…. Simultaneously there appeared in the air above the machine a three-dimensional model of all the Galaxies there listed.
scout ship n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 19/2 Instead of patrolling a certain volume of space, each scout ship takes up a fixed post just inside the outer detector zone.
shield n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Aug. 408/1 The inhabitants of planet three of sun six four seven three Pilarone show unusual development and may cause trouble, as they have already brought knowledge of the metal of power and of the impenetrable shield to the Central System, which is to be our base. Recommend volatilization of this planet by vessel sent on special mission.
shield n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 13/2 Might have been a timed bomb—don’t see how anybody could have stowed away down there through the inspections, and nobody but Franklin can neutralise the shield of the air room—but I'm going to look around, anyway.
shield n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 27/1 Neither ravening ray nor explosive shell could harm him—he had snapped on the protective shield whose generator was always upon his person.
Sol n. 1 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Mar. 29/1 Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they turned their most powerful ultra-beam communicator toward the yellowish star which they knew to be Old Sol.
Sol III n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Nov. 130/2 Lensman of Trenco space port, or any other Lensman within call!… Kinnison of Tellus—Sol III—calling.
Sol III n. 1941 E. E. Smith Vortex Blaster in Comet July 4/1 And even to that individual grain of sand called ‘Earth’—or, in modern parlance, ‘Sol Three’, or ‘Tellus of Sol’, or simply ‘Tellus’—the affair was of negligible importance.
space-armored adj. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 13/2 He flipped on the lifeboat’s visiphone projector and shot its invisible beam up into the control room, where he saw space-armored figures furiously busy at the panels.
space cruiser n. 1928 E. E. Smith & L. H. Garby Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Aug. 414/2 ‘She flies, dearest, like a ray of light for speed and like a bit of thistle-down for lightness. We’ve been around the moon!’… Both investors were moved more than they could have told by their achievement, by the complete success of the great space-cruiser upon which they had labored for months with all the power of their marvelous intellects.
space field n. 2 1947 E. E. Smith Children of the Lens in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 19/2 Two big, gray-clad Lensmen stood upon the deserted spacefield.
space fleet n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Sept. 38/2 Even more clearly than as if he himself had seen them all happen, DuQuesne beheld and understood Seaton’s visit to Norlamin, the story of the Fenachrone peril, the building of the fifth-order projector, the demolition of Fenor’s space fleet, the revenge-purposed flight of Ravindau the scientist, and the complete volatilization of the Fenachrone planet.
space fleet n. 1939 E. E. Smith Robot Nemesis in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 74/1 You all know of the mighty space-fleet which the nations of our enemies are maintaining to repel invasion from space.
spacehound n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories July 304 ‘I was horribly dizzy and nauseated at first, but it’s going away.’ ‘That’s good…. If you’re as well as that already, you'll be a regular spacehound in half an hour.’
spaceman n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Nov. 145/1 Helmuth knew now that it was not superstition that made spacemen shun Arisia.
spacemanship n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 23/1 So consummate had been Loring’s spacemanship that the scout did not even roll.
space opera n. 1947 E. E. Smith Epic of Space in L. A. Eshbach Of Worlds Beyond 78 Great stories must be logical and soundly motivated; and it is in these respects that most ‘space-operas’—as well as more conventional stories—fail.
spacesickness n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Mar. 29/1 Barring a touch of an unusually severe type of space-sickness, everything worked beautifully.
spacesickness n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Mar. 28/1 Instantly over both men there came a sensation akin to a tremendously intensified vertigo; but a vertigo as far beyond the space-sickness of weightlessness, as that horrible sensation is beyond mere terrestrial dizziness.
space-suited adj. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Mar. 35/2 The space-suited mechanics leapt to their tasks; and in only a little more time than had been mentioned by the chief engineer the hull and giant frame of the supership were as staunch as of yore.
space-suited adj. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. xii. 566/2 When the vanguard had approached that room, Crowninshield had inspected it thoroughly with his infra-red beams. He had found it punctured and airless, devoid of life or of lethal devices, and had passed on. But now the space-suited warriors of the horde, guided in their hiding by their own visirays, were massing there.
space tug n. 1939 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 46 His ship, a stubby, powerful space-tug with an oversized air-lock, was a used job.
spaceworthiness n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 23/1 True, the focal area of the energy was an almost invisibly violet glare of incandescence, so intensely hot that the concentric shading off through blinding white, yellow, and bright-red heat brought the zone of dull red far down the side of the vessel; but that awful force had had practically no effect upon the spaceworthiness of the stanch little vessel.
spaceworthy adj. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. 411/1 Day after day the brilliant sphere flew toward distant Saturn, with the wreckage of the Forlorn Hope in tow. Piece by piece that wreckage was brought together and held in place by the Titanian tractors; and slowly but steadily, under Stevens' terrific welding projector, the stubborn steel flowed together, once more to become a seamless, spaceworthy structure.
spaceworthy adj. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Nov. 138/1 The now entirely spaceworthy craft shot out through the port, through Trenco’s noxiously peculiar atmosphere, into the vacuum of space.
spacewreck n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Mar. 16/1 Familiar with space[-]wrecks as were they all, none of them had ever seen anything like the material before them.
spy ray n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 22/1 Keep still!… Don’t act so happy! He may have a spy-ray on you. He can’t hear me, but he may be able to hear you.
spy ray n. 1939 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 32/1 ‘You aren’t asking if everything stayed on the beam.’…‘No need. I had a spy ray on the whole performance.’
sub-ether n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three Amazing Stories Sept. 562/2 Therefore, if there is anything between the particles of the ether—this matter is being debated hotly among us at the present time—it must be a sub-ether, if I may use that term.
sub-ether n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron inAstounding Stories Sept. 32/1 He knew that the zones of force surrounding his vessel were absolutely impenetrable to any wave propagated through the ether, and to any possible form of material substance. He knew also that the subether was blocked, through the fifth and sixth orders. He knew that it was hopeless to attempt to solve the problem of the seventh order in the time at his disposal.
suit n. 1928 E. E. Smith Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 539/2 He took a long inhalation, deposited the butt of his cigarette carefully in his ash tray, and made his way to his room. He returned with three heavy fur suits provided with air helmets, two of which he handed to the girls, who were huddled in a seat with their arms around each other. These suits were the armor designed by Crane for use in exploring the vacuum and the intense cold of dead worlds.
super-weapon n. 1939 E. E. Smith Robot Nemesis in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 74/1 And, so far, there has not been another battle. Neither side dares attack the other; each is waiting for the development of some super-weapon which will give it the overwhelming advantage necessary to insure victory upon a field of action so far from home. But as yet no such weapon has been developed; and indeed, so efficient are the various Secret Services involved, the chance of either side perfecting such a weapon unknown to the other is extremely slim.
telepath v. 1983 E. E. Smith Subspace Encounter i. 9 ‘Positive,’ he telepathed.
Tellurian n. 1968 E. E. Smith Skylark Three 162 DuQuesne, of course—I'll bet a hat no other Tellurian is this far from home.
Tellurian adj. 1948 E. E. Smith Triplanetary (1973) 34 Like two high executives of a Tellurian corporation discussing business affairs during a chance meeting at one of their clubs, Eddore’s All Highest and Gharlane, his second in command, were having the Eddorian equivalent of an after-business-hours chat.
Tellurian adj. 1968 E. E. Smith Skylark Three 50 Heartless and bloodthirsty Osnomian though she was, Sitar had gone to join the two Tellurian women.
Tellus n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 544/2 We’ll pick up Dol Kenor and Pyraz Amonar on the way—no, get them to Tellus, too.
Tellus n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 10/2 I wouldn’t trust them from Tellus to Luna.
thionite n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Sept. i. 12/2 And helping powerfully toward utter chaos were the new vices, which were spreading from world to world; among others the taking of new and horrible drugs. Thionite, for instance; occurring only upon Trenco; a drug as much deadlier than heroin as that compound is than coffee, and which even now commands such a fabulous price that a man can carry a fortune in one hollow boot heel.
thought screen n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Dec. 79/2 There is a blank space which I cannot penetrate, in teh seventh room of the fourth corridor. In all probability it is one of our guests, hiding now behind a thought screen.
thought screen n. 1947 E. E. Smith Children of the Lens in Astounding Science Fiction Nov .54/1 Tregonsee should have stayed out in deep space, concealed behind a solid thought-screen.
tight-beam n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Aug. 29/2 ‘Observation Officer of the Z12Q, attention!’ snapped from the tight-beam headquarters communicator. ‘Cut off those spy rays and report yourself under arrest for treason!’
tight-beam n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 617/2 He’s putting it on a tight beam—that’s fine, we can chase it up.
tight-beamed adj. 1965 E. E. Smith Skylark DuQuesne in World of If Oct. 156/2 Shrugging his shoulders, he sent Stephanie de Marigny a tight-beamed thought.
Titanian n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. vi. 413/2 [F]ar off in space the Titanians clustered about their visiray screens, watching, in almost unbelieving amazement, the supernatural being who labored in that reeking inferno of heat and poisonous vapor—who labored almost naked and entirely unprotected, refreshing himself from time to time with drafts of molten water!
Titanian adj. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. vi. 411/1 Day after day the brilliant sphere flew toward distant Saturn, with the wreckage of the Forlorn Hope in tow. Piece by piece that wreckage was brought together and held in place by the Titanian tractors; and slowly but steadily, under Stevens’ terrific welding projector, the stubborn steel flowed together, once more to become a seamless, spaceworthy structure.
tractor n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories July 308/1 Soon they arrived at their objective and maintained a position well in the van, but not sufficiently far ahead of the rest to call forth a restraining ray from their captors. Already strongly affected by the gravitational pull of the mass of the satellite, many of the smaller portions of the wreck, not directly held by the tractors, began to separate from the main mass. As each bit left its place another beam leaped out, until it became apparent that no more were available, and Stevens strapped the girl and himself down before two lookout plates.
tractor n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. 411/1 Day after day the brilliant sphere flew toward distant Saturn, with the wreckage of the Forlorn Hope in tow. Piece by piece that wreckage was brought together and held in place by the Titanian tractors; and slowly but steadily, under Stevens’ terrific welding projector, the stubborn steel flowed together, once more to become a seamless, space-worthy structure.
tractor n. 1940 E. E. Smith Gray Lensman in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 107/2 ‘Tractors and pressors as assigned—tip him over.’ The intensity of the bombardment did not slacken, but from the maulers to the north there reached out pressors, from those upon the south came tractors; each a beam of terrific power, each backed by all the mass and all the driving force of a veritable flying fortress.
tractor beam n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 549/1 ‘We'll carry off the pieces of that ship, too, Quince—we may be able to get a lot of pointers from it,’ and Brandon swung mighty tractor beams upon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel, then extended a couple of smaller rays to meet the two little figures racing across the smooth green meadow toward the Sirius.
tractor beam n. 1937 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 22/1 Simultaneously, the tractor beams, hitherto exerting only a few dynes of force, stiffened into unbreakable, inflexible rods of energy, binding the two ships of space into one rigid system; each, relative to the other, immovable.
tractor beam n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. 410/1 Dressed in his heavy space-suit and supported by a tractor beam well out of range of what seemed to him terrific heat radiated by the bodies of the Terrestrials, he floated along unconsciously.
tractor field n. 1931 E. E Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 565/1 We’ve got to hold them back some way—wonder if they can absorb a tractor field?
tractor ray n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 544/2 There is such a thing as a ray-screen, you kill-joy, and there are also lifting or tractor rays—two things I've been trying to dope out and that you've been giving me the Bronx cheer on.
tractor ray n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories July 306/1 I don’t see how they do it. They must have a tractor ray.
ultraphone n. 1934 E. E. Smith Skylark of Valeron in Astounding Stories Dec. 148/1 Radnor’s reply to Siblin’s message was unheard, for his ultraphones were not upon his person, but were lying disregarded in a corner of the room in which their owner had undergone examination by his captors.
ultrawave n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 33/2 The Captain gasped—his ultra-wave observer and sometime clerk was Lyman Cleveland himself, probably the greatest living expert in beam transmission!
vacuum suit n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 543/2 They were wearing vacuum suits and were very short and stocky, giving the impression of enormous strength.
vacuum suit n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 545/1 As Loring held the steel vessel close to the stranger, DuQuesne donned a vacuum suit and stepped into the airlock.
Venerian n. 1 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories July 305/2 They're highly intelligent creatures and are in all probability neither Martians nor Venerians.
Venerian adj. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Sept. 567/1 Brandon turned his controls over to an assistant, and went up to the Venerian rooms, where von Steiffel and his staff were to operate upon the Vorkul.
vessel n. 1928 E. E. Smith & L. H. Garby Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 538/2 They calculated their own speed, and that of the other vessel, as shown by the various readings taken, and applied just enough negative acceleration to slow the Skylark down to the speed of the other space-car when they should come up with it.
vessel n. 1938 E. E. Smith Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories Jan. 131/1 Off he shot, and in due course a fair, green, Earthlike planet lay beneath his vessel’s keel.
visiphone n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 13/2 Then, as she sat upon a bench, recovering her strength, he flipped on the lifeboat’s visiphone projector and shot its invisible beam up into the control room, where he saw space-armored figures furiously busy at the panels.
visiplate n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 615/1 Ten enormous supporting forces held the lens of neutronium immovable in the exact center of the upper end; at intervals down the shaft similar forces held variously-shaped lenses and prisms formed from zones of force; in the center of the bottom or floor of the towering structure was the double controlling system, with a universal visiplate facing each operator.
visiplate n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 611/1 He knew that he was seated motionless in the operator’s chair in the base of the rigidly anchored primary projector, and by taking his eyes away from the visiplate before him, he could see that nothing in the laboratory had changed, except that the pyrotechnic display from the power-bar was of unusual intensity. Yet, looking into the visiplate, he was out in space in person, hurtling through space at a pace beside which the best effort of the Skylark seemed the veriest crawl.
visiplate n. 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 548/2 Finally, when the picture filled the entire visiplate, they arrived at the outermost edge of the galaxy.
visiplate n. 1937 E. E. Smith in Astounding Stories Sept. 23/1 ‘Needlers, fire at will!’ barked Kinnison, and even that feeble resistance was ended. Keen-eyed needle-ray men, working at spy-ray visiplates, bored hole after hole into the captive, seeking out and destroying the control-panels of the remaining beams and screens.
visiplate n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Feb. 91/1 Costigan turned away from the absorbing scenes pictured upon the visiplate and faced his two companions.
wallscreen n. 1931 E. E. Smith Spacehounds of IPC in Amazing Stories Aug. 427/2 All three prisoners stared at the wall-screen, upon which was pictured a huge football of scarred grey steel.
warship n. 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Jan. 30/2 She was performing certain routine tasks—charting meteorites, watching for derelicts and other obstructions to navigation, checking in constantly with all scheduled space-ships in case of need, and so on—but primarily she was a warship. She was a mighty engine of destruction.