time viewer n.

= chronoscope n.

SF Encyclopedia


Time Travel

  • 1940 J. W. Campbell in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 6 page image John W. Campbell, Jr. bibliography

    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.

  • [1952 C. D. Simak Fence in Space Science Fiction Sept. 37/1

    Trace it back, you know, with a temporal viewer. Hour to hour, day to day. Record in detail…everything that transpired.]

  • 1956 I. Asimov Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 34/2 page image Isaac Asimov bibliography

    ‘Do you have a time viewer here, Dr. Foster?’… ‘Yes, I do, Mrs. Potterley. A kind of time-viewer. Not a good one. I can’t get sound yet and the picture is darned blurry, but it works.’

  • 1957 ‘R. Burke’ Monday Immortal in Fantastic May 49/2

    The future was unalterable—Hollister had proved that. No matter what steps you took to change it, it always snapped back to the form the time-viewer revealed, one way or another.

  • 2001 G. Dozois in M. Swanwick Being Gardner Dozois 140 Gardner Dozois

    I came up with the ida, although of course it’s just a variant on the long sub-genre of time-viewer stories.

Research requirements

antedating 1940
Earliest cite

John W. Campbell, Jr., 'Wanted: A Chronoscope'
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite from Ralph Burke's "Monday Immortal". Jeff Prucher located and Fred Galvin verified a 1952 cite from Clifford D. Simak's "The Fence" for the form "temporal viewer".

NB: the 1940 JW Campbell citation for "chronoscope" includes the phrase "time viewer", but it is not flagged and will not appear in a catchword search in Incomings.

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.