transmat n.

= matter transmitter n.

In 1947 quot. as the name of a company providing matter-transmission services.

SF Encyclopedia


  • [1947 ‘H. Hastings’ Big Night in Thrilling Wonder Stories June 43/1 page image Henry Kuttner bibliography

    ‘I’m one of the consulting engineers on Transmat.’ ‘The matter-transmission gang? What were you doing around the space-docks?’ Ibid. 43/2 ‘Better not tell the skipper you’re a Transmat man. He’d hang you over one of the jets. Send him for’rd when he’s fixed up, Bruno.’ ‘Yessir,’ Bruno said, grinning faintly. An old deep-space man, he didn’t like Transmat either.]

  • 1952 B. Walton Doomsday 257 A.G.! in Planet Stories May 74/2 page image Bryce Walton bibliography

    From every city on Mars, via transmat, other rivers of worshippers were debouching into the valley…. Via huge transmats on Terra and Venus, other rivers of worshippers numbering millions were flowing across the void. They, too, would…return by transmat sender to their own worlds.

  • 1959 ‘L. M. Harris’ Obey That Impulse! in Future Science Fiction June 40/1 page image Laurence M. Janifer bibliography

    One of these days…, they’ll invent a Transmat that’ll set you down anywhere.

  • 1970 R. Silverberg in Galaxy Magazine June 83/1 Robert Silverberg

    In this spacious catacomb many types of transportation devices were manufactured, covering all needs that the transmat could not meet.

  • 1983 T. Dicks Five Doctors iii. 35 Terrance Dicks bibliography

    The Castellan nodded to the transmat booth in the corner. ‘We have a power-boosted, open-ended transmat beam.’

  • 2008 M. Michalowski Shining Darkness ii. 28 Mark Michalowski bibliography

    What is it with you people and transmats? What’s wrong with a good, old-fashioned shuttle?

Research requirements

antedating 1952
Earliest cite

Bryce Walton
Research History
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1952 cite from Bryce Walton.
Fred Galvin submitted several 1947 examples from Henry Kuttner's "The Big Night", in that case as the name of a matter-transmission company rather than a matter transmitter (device) itself.

Last modified 2021-02-08 10:24:17
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.