E. E. "Doc" Smith was the inventor of Space Opera, and was so prolific and visionary the military thanked him for solving some of their problems,.
Such thanking, among other things, is why I consider science fiction to be the only truly visionary and prophetic literature than exists.
Here are some of his imaginary invention:
Ablative Heat (Reentry) Shield
Acceleration-tank
Artificial eye
Drop Shaft (Neutralization of Inertia)
Emergency Lifeboat
Invisibility field.
Flying Wing
Force-Field
Matched-Frequency Separable Units
Mother Ship - first use of expression
Moving a Planet
Pentavalent Nitrogen - most powerful chemical explosive.
Platinum Alloy Disc - first CD or DVD?
Pressor (Pressor Beam)
Protective Shield - personal force field
Space Armor
Space Suit
Posted by Bob Wallace, who always found Smith unreadable because I wasn't 12 years old in 1930.
You are supposed to read Galactic Patrol first and then the rest of the lensmen series after. But First Lensman has a great cover at amazon so it's up instead. I was about 12 when I read Skylark of Space. I think that's the first EE Smith book I read. I remember being very impressed with the space armor and shields. You can see them on the cover of Galactic Patrol.
I don't remember what Doc Smith called lightsabers... force blades?
Posted by: Tom Novak | Monday, July 16, 2007 at 07:23 PM