visiplate n.

= viewscreen n.

  • 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Sept. 548/2 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    Finally, when the picture filled the entire visiplate, they arrived at the outermost edge of the galaxy.

  • 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 611/1 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    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.

  • 1930 E. E. Smith Skylark Three in Amazing Stories Oct. 615/1 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    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.

  • 1932 J. M. Walsh in Wonder Stories Quarterly Spring 309/2

    ‘I say, skipper,’ said the man whose face showed in the vision-plate, ‘what are you doing there? Someone monkeying with things?’

  • 1932 F. K. Kelly in Wonder Stories Quarterly Fall 64/2

    He went straight to his bunk, reached down into the dark space directly beneath it, pulled hard at something metallic, and withdrew a tiny, compact black mechanism, with a little silver visi-plate inset in its exact center. Grant snapped a control-switch to contact, and waited while the small screen swiftly brightened.

  • 1934 E. E. Smith Triplanetary in Amazing Stories Feb. 91/1 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    Costigan turned away from the absorbing scenes pictured upon the visiplate and faced his two companions.

  • 1935 ‘M. Leinster’ Proxima Centauri in Astounding Stories Mar. 20/1 Murray Leinster bibliography

    They had a scanner on it now and by stepping up illumination to the utmost, and magnification to the point where the image was as rough as an old-fashioned half-tone cut, they brought the strange ship to the visiplate as a six-inch miniature.

  • 1935 ‘M. Leinster’ Proxima Centauri in Astounding Stories Mar. 21/1 page image Murray Leinster bibliography

    The visiplates showed the strange space ship clearly, now, even without magnification.

  • 1937 E. E. Smith in Astounding Stories Sept. 23/1 Edward E. Smith

    ‘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.

  • 1950 R. A. Heinlein Farmer in Sky (1975) viii. 83 Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    The rest of the ship was cut in by visiplate.

  • 1985 R. Chilson in Dragon Magazine Oct. 61/1

    That nondescript dot of light in the visiplate represented the enemy.

  • 2003 M. Swanwick Legions in Time in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr. 83 Michael Swanwick

    Ellie shrieked, and threw her purse over the visi-plate. ‘Don’t listen to him!’ she ordered Nadine. ‘See if you can find a way of turning this thing off!’


Research requirements

antedating 1930

Earliest cite

E.E. 'Doc' Smith, 'Skylark Three'

Research History
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a cite from a 1975 printing of Heinlein's "Farmer in the Sky".
Enoch Forrester submitted cites from Isaac Asimov's "Runaround" and "Catch That Rabbit"; Mike Christie verified them in the 1942 and 1944 magazine appearances.
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1965 reprint of E.E. Smith's 1934 "Triplanetary"; Jesse Sheidlower verified it in the original appearance in Amazing Stories.
Dan Tilque submitted a cite from E.E. Smith's "Galactic Patrol"; Mike Christie verified it in the 1937 original magazine appearance.
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1932 cite for the form "vision-plate" from J. M. Walsh's "The Vanguard to Neptune".
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1932 cite from Frank K. Kelly's "The Crisis with Mars".
Edward Bornstein submitted a cite from a 1978 reprint of Murray Leinster's "Proxima Centauri": Isaac Wilcott verified this in the story's 1935 first publication.
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1931 cite for the form "visiray plate" from E.E. Smith's "Spacehounds of IPC".
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1985 cite from Rob Chilson's "Passing in the Night".
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 2003 cite from Michael Swanwick's "Legions in Time".
Robert Dana submitted a cite from a 1966 reprint of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's "Skylark Three"; Isaac Wilcott verified this in the 1930 first publication.

Last modified 2020-12-29 14:18:52
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.