Edward E. Smith

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Edward E. Smith
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44 First Quotations from Edward E. Smith

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—
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?
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!
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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-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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.’
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.’
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 July 306/1 I don’t see how they do it. They must have a tractor ray.
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!
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.
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.