Warp speed

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Nov 29, 2002 at 09:12:47AM -0500, James A. Landau wrote:
> In a message dated 11/29/2002 7:11:57 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> mailinglists at LOGOPHILIA.COM writes:
>
> > Does anyone know if
> >  "warp speed" was used prior to the original Star Trek series and, if so,
> who
> >  used it and when?
>
> THe OED's science fiction words Web site
>
>     http://www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml
>
> shows nothing in print prior to 1979!  However, "warp" is cited in 1936 and
> "space warp" in 1935.
>
> (I'm pretty sure 1979 can be antedated----I remember a letter in the Brass
> Tacks (letters to the editor) column in Analog Science Fiction, most likely
> while the original Star Trek series was on TV, which analyzed the values
> given for warp speed and said they were too small.)
>
> I once owned a book _The Making of Star Trek_ by one Stephen E. Whitfield
> which gives a fair amount of detail on how Gene Roddenberry came up with the
> various pieces that make up the Star Trek universe.  "Warp speed" was one of
> the topics discussed, and I have a vague memory that Whitfield said, or
> implied, that Roddenberry invented the term.

While I don't have the book handy, we did read through _Making of
Star Trek_ and I think I recall that it only had _warp factor,_ not
_warp speed._ We may have additional stuff that hasn't made it to
the SF page, but I think that a lot of the early things we had were
for these other forms, like _warp factor_ or _go to warp_ but not
_warp speed_ itself.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED