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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Invention </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 1 April 2024. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=invention'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=invention'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=invention'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> <span style="cursor: pointer;" onclick="window.open('/gallery.php?link=invention');"> <img alt="Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com" style="margin: 0; position: relative; top:-2px;" src="/images/icon-gal.gif"></img></span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=Rickard-NewInventions.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/Rickard-NewInventions.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>This thematic topic is closely linked to that of <a href="/entry/discovery">Discovery</a> (which see), but has a considerably broader scope since sf inventions are not necessarily based on brand-new discoveries but can result from a synthesis of existing principles by <a href="/entry/scientists">Scientists</a>, <a href="/entry/mad_scientist">Mad Scientists</a>, or (frequently) a Common Man with a lucky insight. Further entries with substantial discussion of inventions include <a href="/entry/edisonade">Edisonade</a>, <a href="/entry/imaginary_science">Imaginary Science</a>, <a href="/entry/machines">Machines</a>, <a href="/entry/power_sources">Power Sources</a>, <a href="/entry/prediction">Prediction</a>, <a href="/entry/technology">Technology</a> and <a href="/entry/transportation">Transportation</a>. There is also a small subgenre of stories, not all sf, dealing with the life and marvellous inventions of <a href="/entry/leonardo_da_vinci">Leonardo da Vinci</a> (whom see).</p> <p>The invention story was prominent in nineteenth-century sf, notably in the works of Jules <a href="/entry/verne_jules">Verne</a>, who could almost be said to have invented it. Vernean inventions, particularly of new kinds of transport, were a feature of <a href="/entry/dime-novel_sf">Dime-Novel SF</a>. Yankee knowhow and inventiveness were carried into the past with Mark <a href="/entry/twain_mark">Twain</a>'s <i>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court</i> (<b>1889</b>). (A twentieth-century version of Twain's story, with a more sophisticated view of <a href="/entry/history_in_sf">History</a>, is <i>Lest Darkness Fall</i> [December 1939 <a href="/entry/unknown">Unknown</a>; exp <b>1941</b>; rev <b>1949</b>] by L Sprague <a href="/entry/de_camp_l_sprague">de Camp</a>.) Edward Everett <a href="/entry/hale_edward_everett">Hale</a> invented orbital satellites in "The Brick Moon" (October-December 1869 <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>). Later in the century the US inventor Thomas Alva <a href="/entry/edison_thomas_alva">Edison</a> became a hero figure; his exploits were much imitated in sf, and his name often borrowed (see <a href="/entry/edisonade">Edisonade</a>); some of these stories are also described under <a href="/entry/scientists">Scientists</a>. Rudyard <a href="/entry/kipling_rudyard">Kipling</a> invented the transatlantic airmail postal service in "With the Night Mail" (November 1905 <a href="/entry/mcclures_magazine">McClure's</a>; rev <b>1909</b> chap). H G <a href="/entry/wells_h_g">Wells</a> invented a huge number of devices – some fantastic, as in <i>The Time Machine</i> (<b>1895</b>), and some realistic, as with the tanks in "The Land Ironclads" (December 1903 <a href="/entry/strand_magazine_the">Strand</a>) and atomic war in <i>The World Set Free</i> (<b>1914</b>). Samuel <a href="/entry/chapman_s_e">Chapman</a>'s <i>Doctor Jones' Picnic</i> (<b>1898</b>) features a busy inventor who creates a huge aluminium <a href="/entry/balloons">Balloon</a> and a homoeopathic cure for cancer. The index of Everett F <a href="/entry/bleiler_everett_f">Bleiler</a>'s <i>Science-Fiction: The Early Years</i> (<b>1990</b>) lists 134 stories and novels according to their particular inventions, those for "g" being "gasoline substitute, ghost condensor, gravity storage apparatus, gunpowder engine"; other letters of the alphabet produce examples just as eccentric.</p> <p>The invention story had an especially strong vogue in the early <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> magazines, where it was equalled in popularity as an sf subject only by the <a href="/entry/future_war">Future-War</a> story and the lost-race story. Examples are: George Allan <a href="/entry/england_george_allan">England</a>'s <i>The Golden Blight</i> (18 May-22 June 1912 <a href="/entry/cavalier_the">Cavalier</a>; <b>1916</b>), in which a gold-disintegrator effects economic revolution; William Wallace <a href="/entry/cook_william_wallace">Cook</a>'s <i>The Eighth Wonder</i> (November 1906-February 1907 <a href="/entry/argosy_the">Argosy</a>; <b>1925</b>), in which an eccentric inventor threatens to steal the world's electricity supply with a huge electromagnet (see <a href="/entry/magnetism">Magnetism</a>); and Garrett P <a href="/entry/serviss_garrett_p">Serviss</a>'s <i>The Moon Metal</i> (<b>1900</b>), in which a <a href="/entry/matter_transmission">Matter Transmitter</a> is invented to obtain artemisium, a rare valuable metal, from the Moon.</p> <p>The years 1900-1930 were largely those of scientific <a href="/entry/optimism_and_pessimism">Optimism</a>, and in the pulps Hugo <a href="/entry/gernsback_hugo">Gernsback</a> was one of its prophets. Before founding <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing Stories</a> he did well with his magazine <a href="/entry/science_and_invention">Science and Invention</a>, which featured much technological fiction. His own <i>Ralph 124C 41+</i> (April 1911-March 1912 <i>Modern Electrics</i>; fixup <b>1925</b>) is one of the most celebrated of those novels whose <i>raison d'être</i> is to catalogue the inventions of the future; they include television.</p> <p>Several generalist magazines such as <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/idler_the">Idler</a> and <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/red_magazine_the">Red Magazine</a> particularly welcomed tales of inventions. Likewise, the discovery/invention story continued to pop up every now and then outside <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre SF</a>, as in C S <a href="/entry/forester_c_s">Forester</a>'s <i>The Peacemaker</i> (<b>1934</b>), in which a pacifist invents a magnetic disrupter which stops machinery; E C <a href="/entry/large_e_c">Large</a>'s <i>Sugar in the Air</i> (<b>1937</b>), in which a process for artificial photosynthesis is discovered; and William <a href="/entry/golding_william">Golding</a>'s play <i>The Brass Butterfly</i> (<i>1956</i> as "Envoy Extraordinary"; <b>1958</b>), in which a brilliant inventor in ancient Greece is given short shrift by his ruler, who sees the new inventions as an unpleasing threat to the <i>status quo</i>. Norman <a href="/entry/hunter_norman">Hunter</a>'s <i>The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm</i> (coll <b>1933</b>) and its sequels star the title's scatty <a href="/entry/mad_scientist">Mad Scientist</a> inventor, and the first book's illustrator W Heath <a href="/entry/robinson_w_heath">Robinson</a> was famed for his many depictions of bizarre though rarely science-fictional gadgets. An idiot-savant inventor, whose <a href="/entry/antigravity">Antigravity</a> device (constructed from junk) is incomprehensible to mere <a href="/entry/scientists">Scientists</a>, is central to Lion Miller's "The Available Data on the Worp Reaction" (September 1953 <a href="/entry/fsf">F&SF</a>).</p> <p>But it was inside genre sf that the invention story found its true home, though tending to become more sombre when the central metaphor of Mary Wollstonecraft <a href="/entry/shelley_mary_wollstonecraft">Shelley</a>'s <i>Frankenstein</i> (<b>1818</b>) – the inventor being destroyed by his creation – was given contemporary relevance by the dropping of the atom bomb over Hiroshima. Even before that, stories featuring <a href="/entry/nuclear_energy">Nuclear Energy</a>, such as Lester <a href="/entry/del_rey_lester">del Rey</a>'s "Nerves" (September 1942 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>), had been very much aware of the dangers of such inventions. John W <a href="/entry/campbell_john_w_jr">Campbell</a> Jr, both as a writer and as editor of <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>, was taking a gloomier view of technological advance by the late 1930s, although his own <i>The Mightiest Machine</i> (December 1934-April 1935 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1947</b>) had been a jolly romp, featuring the invention of a <a href="/entry/spaceships">Spaceship</a> which can take its energy direct from the stars. Campbell's <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a> continued through the 1940s to publish a number of invention stories, in which scientific plausibility was emphasized as never before in genre sf. The results included Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a>'s "Waldo" (August 1942 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a> as by Anson MacDonald; vt <i>Waldo: Genius in Orbit</i> <b>1958</b>). This is a gripping, optimistic invention story; the term <a href="/entry/waldo">Waldo</a> is still used today for remote-control devices. George O <a href="/entry/smith_george_o">Smith</a>'s <b>Venus Equilateral</b> sequence collected as <i>Venus Equilateral</i> (stories October 1942-November 1945 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; coll of linked stories <b>1947</b>; exp <b>1975</b> UK 2vols; vt <i>The Complete Venus Equilateral</i> <b>1976</b>) features much inventive work in radio <a href="/entry/communications">Communications</a> across the solar system. <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>'s invention syndrome was given a boost by James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a>'s <b>Okie</b> stories, which feature the <a href="/entry/spindizzy">Spindizzy</a>, one of the most attractive of all sf inventions; they appeared 1950-1954, and in book form as the first two volumes of the <b>Cities in Flight</b> tetralogy: <i>Earthman, Come Home</i> (April 1950-November 1953 var mags; fixup <b>1955</b>; cut <b>1958</b>) and <i>They Shall Have Stars</i> (February 1952 and May 1954 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; fixup <b>1956</b>; rev vt <i>Year 2018!</i> <b>1957</b>). <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a> sometimes struck a lighter note <i>vis-à-vis</i> inventions, notably in the 1940s <b>Galloway Gallegher</b> stories by Lewis Padgett (Henry <a href="/entry/kuttner_henry">Kuttner</a>). These feature an inventor whose creative faculties are released by the intake of large quantities of alcohol, and his irritatingly self-regarding robot sidekick; they were collected as <i>Robots Have No Tails</i> (stories January 1943-April 1948 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; coll of linked stories <b>1952</b>) as by Kuttner. Meanwhile <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>'s competitors were also featuring lighthearted invention stories alongside the more doom-laden variety. A notable example of the former was the <b>Lancelot Biggs</b> series of <a href="/entry/space_opera">Space Operas</a> by Nelson S <a href="/entry/bond_nelson_s">Bond</a>, which appeared mostly in <a href="/entry/fantastic_adventures">Fantastic Adventures</a> (1939-1940) and were collected in revised form as <i>Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman</i> (coll of linked stories <b>1950</b>).</p> <p>Discovery/invention themes still proliferate in sf, as by the nature of the genre they always will. Important examples from the 1950s onward have been: Fred <a href="/entry/hoyle_fred">Hoyle</a>'s <i>Ossian's Ride</i> (<b>1959</b>), in which a sinister-seeming cartel has cordoned off southwest Ireland as an invention-producing area; Kurt <a href="/entry/vonnegut_kurt_jr">Vonnegut</a> Jr's <i>Cat's Cradle</i> (<b>1963</b>), in which havoc is wreaked by a newly discovered form of ice (<i>ice-nine</i>) whose melting point is 114.4°F (45.8°C) and which infects and crystallizes any cooler liquid water it touches; Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a>'s <i>The Gods Themselves</i> (March/April-May-June 1972 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>; <b>1972</b>), in which a new energy source, the positron pump, is invented with a great show of plausibility; and Bob <a href="/entry/shaw_bob">Shaw</a>'s <i>Other Days, Other Eyes</i> (fixup <b>1972</b>), based on his short story "Light of Other Days" (August 1966 <a href="/entry/analog">Analog</a>), which features <a href="/entry/slow_glass">Slow Glass</a>, one of the most convincing and original inventions of sf (it slows down light, thus effectively allowing events to be viewed after a time-lapse; the privacy-invading social consequences of this unusually plausible <a href="/entry/time_viewer">Time Viewer</a> are intriguingly explored). Arthur C <a href="/entry/clarke_arthur_c">Clarke</a>'s <i>Fountains of Paradise</i> (<b>1979</b>), a classically optimistic work of technological invention, envisages the building in a <a href="/entry/near_future">Near-Future</a> Earth of a 36,000km (22,400 mile) tower to be used as a <a href="/entry/space_elevator">Space Elevator</a>.</p> <p>A theme anthology collecting many relevant <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre SF</a> stories is <i>Science Fiction Inventions</i> (anth <b>1967</b>) edited by Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a>. [PN/DRL]</p> <p><b>further reading</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li>Maurice Rickards. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=New+Inventions+A+Comprehensive+Survey+of&field-author=Maurice+Rickards" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">New Inventions: A Comprehensive Survey of Scientific and Technical Progress in the Arts, Sciences and Manufactures as Published during the Reign of Her Majesty</a></em> (London: Hugh Evelyn, <b>1969</b>) [nonfiction: illus/hb/from various sources]</li> <li>Leonard de Vries and Ilonka van Amstel. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Victorian+Inventions&field-author=Leonard+de+Vries+and+Ilonka+van+Amstel" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Victorian Inventions</a></em> (London: John Murray, <b>1971</b>) [nonfiction: graph: trans by Barthold Suermondt from Dutch manuscript later published as <em>Knotsgekke uitvindingen</em> (<b>1972</b>): illus/: hb/Mirja de Vries]</li> </ul> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/gallery.php?link=invention">Picture Gallery</a></li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/invention' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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