matter transmitter n.

a device for conveying matter over a distance by transforming it into energy or information, beaming this to another location, and reconstituting the original matter at the destination; cf. matter transmission n.

  • [1930 J. W. Campbell The Voice of the Void in Amazing Stories Quarterly Summer 392/1 page image John W. Campbell, Jr. bibliography

    Of the fleet of ten great ships, and the accompanying matter-sender, six ships returned. The rest floated out there in the interplanetary space around Betelguese.]

  • 1931 ‘L. F. Stone’ Conquest of Gola in Wonder Stories Apr. 1280/1 page image Leslie F. Stone

    With me at her side, Geble hastened to the beam station and there in the matter transmitter we dispatched our physical beings to the palace at Tola.

  • 1931 E. Hamilton Monsters of Mars in Astounding Stories Apr. 7/1 page image Edmond Hamilton bibliography

    This the Martians told us, and said they would set up a matter transmitter and receiver on Mars and would aid and instruct us so that we could set up a similar transmitter and receiver here. Then part of us could be flashed out to Mars as radio vibrations by the transmitter, and in moments would have flashed across the gulf to the red planet and would be transformed back from radio vibrations to matter-vibrations by the receiver awaiting us there!

  • 1946 M. Leinster The Disciplinary Circuit in Thrilling Wonder Stories Jan. 44/1 page image Murray Leinster bibliography

    This very vessel, however, was used by Sten Rendell when the first human colonists came in it to Alphin III, bringing with them the matter transmitter which enabled civilization to enter upon and occupy the planet on which you stand.

  • 1956 J. Brunner Host Age in New Worlds Science Fiction Jan. 7 page image John Brunner bibliography

    The matter transmitter, isn’t it? You scan the molecular structure of the thing you want to ship and pipe it down a radio beam.

  • 1969 T. M. Disch Echo Round His Bones (1970) 13 Thomas M. Disch bibliography

    The captain’s position in the military establishment had brought him…into contact with that phenomenon which, of all the phenomena of the age, was most advanced, most contemporary, most at the forefront of the future—with, in short, the matter transmitter.

  • 1991 A. D. Foster Cat.a.lyst ix. 133 Alan Dean Foster bibliography

    Now somebody’s gonna have to explain away that matter transmitter. Or are you going to tell me it was a Kodak moment that brought us all the way across the Andes.

  • 1998 D. D’Ammassa Critical Mass in Science Fiction Chronicle June 39/1 (review of John Barnes’ Earth Made of Glass) page image Don D'Ammassa bibliography

    The human race is rapidly reuniting after a diaspora that left colonies of genuinely ethnic diversity as well as a number of artificially created ones scattered through the universe. The discovery of the springer, a matter transmitter, has made it possible to reunite these diverse worlds.

  • 2013 M. Moorcock Lost Canal in Old Mars (2015) 375 page image Michael Moorcock bibliography

    Later, I worked on a matter transmitter for the Pentagon. I tested it on myself. It went wrong. I was dragged back to old Mars instead.

Research requirements

antedating 1931
Earliest cite

L. F. Stone, in Wonder Stories
Research History
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2013 cite from Michael Moorcock.

In the OED, with an earliest date of 1931.

Last modified 2024-12-02 00:00:31
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.