[Ads-l] antedating Warp Speed

Sat Jun 27 23:21:47 UTC 2020

This post contains citations for "warp drive" and a metaphorical use
of "space-warp speed", so placement in this discussion thread seems
reasonable.

The entry for "warp drive" (noun) in the "Science Fiction Citations"
database lists the 1948 novel "What Mad Universe' by F. Brown. The
entry says serialization began in "Startling Stories" in September
1948.
https://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/138

Hence, the following citation appears to be a bit earlier.

Date: January 1948
Periodical: Amazing Stories
Volume 22, Number 1
Story: Flight of the Starling
Author: Chester S. Geier
Start Page 8, Quote Page 10. Column 2
https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v22n01_1948-01_cape1736/page/n9/mode/1up

[Begin excerpt]
The atomic engines of ordinary space vessels attained only a small
fraction of the inconceivable velocity which Alward claimed for the
warp-drive of the Starling.
[End excerpt]

The following citation is later than the one Bill found, but it might
be interesting because "space-warp speed" was used figuratively.

Date: March 1953
Periodical: Planet Stories
Volume 5, Number 11
Editorial
Quote Page 2

https://archive.org/details/PlanetStoriesV05N11195303/page/n3/mode/2up

[Begin excerpt]
We're in trouble again. Bad trouble. Letters are skidding in at
space-warp speed censoring the daylights out of PLANET for running
three Bryan Berry stories at one time. It is hard to see why we should
get especial hell for this. Here comes a writer who is well-set in
England though new here—here were three gems of high nutritional
value—here was a magazine with a staggering I.Q.'d audience—a natural,
yes?
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 5:30 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> warp speed
> OED SF Project and OED have 1977
>
> 1952 Fox B. Holden "Yachting Party"  _Imagination_  Jan 95/2 [Internet Archive]
> "'Free' speed, with old-fashioned fuel-eating jets which were supposed to be carried as emergency power units only, was forty thousand miles a second at best -- warp-speed, depending on the dimension you used, had a top of better than a thousand light-years a minute."
> https://archive.org/details/Imagination_v03n01_1952-01_LennyS-cape1736/page/n94/mode/1up?q=%22warp+speed%22
>
> 1973 _Fantasy & Science Fiction_ Aug 162/2 [Internet Archive]
> [classified ad] "Alien Space costs $4 and gives each player command of a warp speed starship, equipped with blazers, shields, sensors, main and auxiliary engines, life support systems, etc."
> https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v045n02_1973-08/page/n82/mode/1up?q=%22warp+speed%22
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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